The Artisans

Alberto La Tassa (Padova, 1986) is a painter who lives and works between Miami and Venice in Italy. His atelier is located in the heart of Venice behind Campo Santo Stefano, near the Accademia Bridge. He graduated from the Venice Academy of Fine Arts with honors. His recent solo and group exhibitions include amongst others: 2023, LA Art Show, Los Angeles, US; 2023, Art Wynwood, Miami, US; 2020, Beyond the Plastic, Muse, Trento, IT; 2020, A Collection Award, Arte Fiera, Bologna, IT; 2019, A Collection, Palazzo Barolo, Torino, IT; 2019, Arte Padova, Padova, IT; 2019, Pink Art Fair, Seoul, KR.

Arcangelo Ambrosi experiments with wood in all its natural, lively dimensions. Ambrosi creates first-rate wooden sculptures and smoking pipes, drawing inspiration from Italian author Dino Buzzati and his love for pipes, which he described as an “eminent expression of lifeless things”. Molding singular, unconventional forms, he also incorporates branches, knots, roots, and grains as essential elements in his sculptures to create striking anatomical features.

Inspired by Pollock, Fontana, and Burri, contemporary artist Mirko Demattè's most recent artistic journey is named “Contemporary Constructions”, embodying connections between people and their surroundings, capturing the essence of both architectural and emotional frames. Symbolizing motion, transformation, and flexibility, Demattè’s unique mixed media artworks, whether concrete or abstract, combine the artist’s curiosity about the world and his introspective nature, representing his evolving vision that continues to challenge the boundaries of contemporary art.

A precious family heritage of drawings, samples, and more than 1300 designs handed down for three generations is the driving force behind Vangelista 1960. Specialized in furniture collections reflecting the distinctive traits that earned Italian design global plaudit, the company exclusively uses 16th- and 17th-century techniques executed by master craftsmen. Customers cannot help but be seduced by the one-off furniture pieces, captivating with their unique shapes, finishes, and colors.

Mosaic artist and sculptor Patrizia Dalla Valle has always been fascinated by Byzantine and Ravennate art. Born in Budrio, near Bologna, she lived in Ravenna - the ancient capital of the Western Roman Empire - for 30 years, during which she learned mosaic secrets from local masters before developing her own technical and artistic mark. Constant experimentation with materials and images is a pillar of her art, which she has exhibited at the Venice Biennale, the National Museum of Fine Arts in L’Avana, Cuba, and the European Parliament in Bruxelles among others over the years.

Living between India, Thailand, and Austria as a child, Maria Christina Hamel moved to Milan at the end of the 1970s where she studied Industrial Design at the Scuola Politecnica di Design. Starting off her career alongside designers such as Andries van Onck, Ugo La Pietra, and Ambrogio Rossari, she was Alessandro Mendini’s assistant in Vienna for over ten years. Her unique style captures influences of her multicultural background, handcrafted in historic traditional places. She also teaches and her works are part of the permanent collection of the Triennale di Milano.

Evoking a unique, immersive ambiance with her distinctive paintings merging real-life figures and fantastic characters, fluid shades, and clean geometries, contemporary artist Anna Caruso grew up in a culturally rich yet fragmented Milan during the 1980s. A graduate of Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts of Bergamo in 2004, she now collaborates with Italian and International art galleries, including the Gilda Contemporary Art in Milan, the Anna Marra Contemporanea in Rome, and Thomas Masters Gallery in Chicago.

Alberto Alicata (b. 1983) is a Milan-based photographer and artist. Whether behind fashion shoot or in art project, his work is marked by his unique perspective on art and style, driven by a sensitivity to the personal essence of his subjects or the creative vision of the art. His works have appeared in such publications as Elle Italia, Vogue China, D-laRepubblica, Vanity Fair, Wired, theGuardian, Telegraph, L'Oeil De La Photographie, among others. Has won, in 2016, the Sony World Photography Awards and, in 2022, the Duane Michals MA-g Awards.

Born near Perugia in the rolling Umbrian hills in 1980, Matteo Peducci has been drawn to sculpture since childhood. This natural pull turned into a reality when he received the highest honors at the Academy of Fine Arts of Carrara, Tuscany. Following graduation, he flew to Thailand where he was hired as the royal sculptor for the King of Thailand for more than three years. His return to Italy marks the birth of Affiliati, conceived as a space where the only code word is freedom, an open box for always new artistic languages to converge and thrive.

Born from a fascination with light and a passion for art, Alessandro Giacomelli and Dominique Wolniewicz founded Diaphan creative studio in 2019. Starting with friends and family-commissioned designs, today their site-specific, bespoke installations are the result of collaborations with curators, collectors, and retailers. Dedicated to the excellence of design and craftsmanship, Diaphan sets new standards for the industry, transforming light into poetic experience using a research-based approach and contemporary interpretations of natural forms.

“Clay lets me experience the beauty of natural rhythms”. Cristina Cavallari is an Italian contemporary ceramist with a small yet vibrant workshop where she embodies different roles. Her artistic philosophy is deeply rooted in the respect for the natural world, as inspiration but also as our home. With this in mind, she creates unique oeuvres tracing the slow passage of Nature’s time, taking care of her clay in the art that transforms a ductile raw material into a solid object.

A tribute to “Made in Italy”, Hemo creates interior design pieces with a versatile and sophisticated character, down to the smallest detail. Merging international inspirations with traditional roots, the brand is based in Brianza, the furniture-making capital of Italy, bringing with it a deep and familiar knowledge of raw materials as well as modern and innovative techniques.

Laesse is the artisan ceramic workshop of Stefania Vazzoler who, for over 10 years, has been modeling and painting by hand in her farmhouse in Oderzo, in the heart of the Treviso countryside. After her experience in Luigi Cillo's workshop, Stefania Vazzoler began to experiment with metals, glass, and enamels until her interest grew in working with ceramics, bringing her to create everyday objects; plates, cups, and bowls, with simple and clean shapes.

Brothers Francesco and Mario Ballarin founded the F&M Ballarin company in 1956 in Murano, dedicating their life to the creation of pieces made with the ancient techniques of glass processing. Today, the company is led by Angelo Ballarin who carries on the tradition, passion, and techniques handed down by his family: grinding, engraving, and glass blowing. Unique and elegant objects in perfect classic Murano style revisited with a contemporary tone, characterized by bold and contrasting colors.

Since 1980, Nalesso has been synonymous with the sartorial tradition at the service of furniture design. The typical artisan crafting experience and production skills make Nalesso a manufacturer of excellence in the furniture sector. For three generations, the company from Rubano, Padua, has been producing high-end and made-to-measure Made in Italy furniture and accessories to meet every need. The assortment of materials used is vast and includes leathers, fabrics, woods, marbles, metals and plastic materials worked by specialized craftsmen.

Lalabonbon was founded from the encounter between contemporary creativity and Italian tradition in the production of chairs and furnishings from the 1950s and 1960s. Having always loved Italian vintage design, the designer Cristina Zanni is the soul of Lalabonbon. Cristina reworks and combines finishes and materials, from velvet to tartan to the Prince of Wales, creating dynamic collections that intrigue and entice, adapting to any environment. All products are handmade in Italy by expert craftsmen.

Strato was founded in 1987 as an interior design company with Gianna Farina and Marco Gorini. In 1990, their passion for cooking led the company to specialize in the design of custom kitchens, which are today present and marketed all over the world. Using quality materials such as stone, marble, wood, stainless steel and copper, the company has a refined and contemporary design style and their continuous search for new technical solutions and finishes constitutes a new way of interpreting kitchen design.

Prane Design is a brand specializing in the creation of modern style upholstered furniture, sofas, and beds, made with top quality materials. With headquarters in San Martino di Lupari in Padova, Prane Design is today a leader in the world of furniture and upholstery. A company with an artisan heart and an entrepreneurial spirit. For Prane Design, creating sofas means tailoring fabrics in order to weave bonds.

Vetrogiardini was founded via an encounter between Sandro Santoni, founder of the historic Santoni Vetri company and Sametec, and Luca Degara, an eclectic artist and designer famous for his engineering ability to create innovative products with strong emotional impact. Vetrogiardini designs and manufactures interior and exterior furnishings and accessories where glass is the absolute hero. Through the latest technologies in glass, new technical solutions come to life to give aesthetic shape and resistance to new revolutionary furnishings

Originally from Rome and subsequently relocating to Bolzano, Andrea De Chirico is a young designer who boasts a curriculum rich in studies and experiences throughout Europe. His projects are born from a desire to combine tradition and modernity: everyday objects are manufactured and transformed to become something completely new, to be used in a variety of contexts. His work has been exhibited at, among others, the London Design Museum, the Triennale Design Museum and the Z33 House for Contemporary Art.