The Mazzoleni gallery dedicates an exhibition to the Albisola manufacturing, with signatures of great post-war authors
The great galaxy of the so-called “applied arts” or “artistic craftsmanship” is nourished by local identities. This concerns not only languages and styles, but also the DNA of manufacturing, which can be traced back to the raw materials available in the area. This very close link between geographical context and creativity is also expressed in industrial production, certainly a more recent phenomenon, but for both worlds the peculiarity of production depends on districts and areas.
One of the most brilliant cases concerns the manufacturing of Albisola, which for centuries has involved the two neighboring municipalities in the province of Savona, namely Albisola Superiore (with only one s), and Albissola Marina (written with two s). This small area – since Roman antiquity, when a unique red clay began to be quarried on the beach, with significant technical changes between monasticism and the Renaissance – has been the creative theater of many artists specialized in ceramic manufacturing or active on this theme in a more occasional and experimental way. In the last century, the brightest moments were essentially two: the interwar period, when stylistic inflections very close to international Art Deco developed, and the immediate post-war period.
The Turin gallery Mazzoleni dedicates an exhibition project to this second scenario in its London headquarters. The exhibition “Albisola: A Season of Artists”open from 14 October to 19 December 2025, celebrates the rich artistic heritage of Albisola, a true melting pot of experimentation, collaboration and innovation in the production of artistic ceramics over the centuries.
Ahead of the 40th anniversary of the Mazzoleni gallery, which will fall in 2026, the exhibition explores the deep personal and historical connections between Albisola and the gallery family and the relationships that have helped shape its vision and program since its foundation.
At the center of the exhibition itinerary, composed of different artistic composition techniques (paintings, sculptures, objects), a selection of emblematic works by protagonists of the Albisola artistic scene such as Enrico Baj, Giuseppe Capogrossi, Roberto Crippa, Lucio Fontana, Asger Jorn, Wifredo Lam, Piero Manzoni ed Emilio Scanavino offers a rare glimpse into the lively intercultural dialogue that developed in this context, when experimentation intertwined local craft traditions and avant-garde art trends.
The interest of the initiative also lies on a more critical front: faced with the contaminations that characterize design and art today, the exhibition provides further conceptual material to reflect on the boundaries between these two spheres, given that ceramic artefacts (plates, jugs and more) often represent the meeting point between sculpture and function, between decoration and living material.
The exhibition also traces the research on ceramics of Lucio Fontana, who began working in Albisola in 1936, at the factory of Tullio d’Albisola’s father (Giuseppe Mazzotti). In this context he developed the Natura Morta series and subsequently applied the innovations in glazing learned during his stay in Sèvres to ceramics. The return to Albisola after the war marked a turning point for Fontana: he began to create large-format ceramics integrated with the architecture, transposing his spatialist ideas into sculpture. An emblematic example is Space concept (1957), a terracotta work approximately 1.5 meters long, crossed by his famous cuts. This dramatic gesture anticipated, in three-dimensional form, the radical energy that would later find expression in his canvases.
Revisiting local artistic fervor, “Albisola: A Season of Artists” not only celebrates a crucial moment in post-war art history, but also reflects the founding ethos of the Mazzoleni gallery: an ethos rooted in experimentation, dialogue and deep respect for artistic legacy.
Albisola: A Season of Artists
Mazzoleni London, 15 Old Bond Street, W1S 4AX, London
14 October – 19 December 2025
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