dionisio cimarelli

"Dionisio Cimarelli is a contemporary art version of Marco Polo, criss crossing and intertwining Chinese and Italian cultures, so things Chinese become Italian and things Italian become Chinese. In this sense Cimarelli takes his inspiration from his Chinese peers and combines it with that renowned sense of a delicate, sensitive, and refined Italian aesthetic often found in the ceramics of Richard Ginori in Florence. The arts of one country often inspire the arts of another country resulting in a redefining process as we have seen with much of our culture here in Japan inspired by China. Cimarelli achieves this redefining process with great amusing satire but also in exuberant celebration of the very long ties between Chinese and Italian cultures."
Joni Waka, Curator, The A.R.T. Collection, Tokyo

"Cimarelli continues to work his magic in this new series of sculptures. As in his previous satirical series on traditional European sculpture, at first glance the unfamiliar eye discards the work as not contemporary art but mere take offs of traditional art, then on second glance one is left with a smile, pleasantly surprised to discover the subtle but potent satire in Cimarelli`s work. This great sense of Cimarelli`s might best be described as cross between the subtle delicacy of Suda, the Japanese contemporary artists using wood carved flowers and plants and the wonderfully humorous social statements of Duchamp. With this China show Cimarelli takes it one step further in creating a satire on both traditional and contemporary sculpture."
Joni Waka, Tokyo

"Ciao Mr. D., it’s 3:42 am in Tokyo so I am going to bed now. I am not a man of many words but with my few words I try to create an impact. In this case I tried to write in the spirit of your work with the first part being some traditional diplomatic (but true and honest) statement and the second part hitting people with what you are really about. Very much as a novice views your work at first as a traditional art take off and then with a smile............... I’m not sure if I can make it to China physically reason my engagements in Tokyo, but rest assured my astral body will be at both openings shouting Bravo! Bravo! Bravo! Dionisio! auguri, Johnnie"
Tokyo, May 2008
Joni Waka, Tokyo

"Maestro Dionisio boasts a wide international experience and is one of the most well known Italian sculptors exercising his artistic activity in China. After his first visit in 1986, he continued investigating, with passion and marked interest, the culture and art of this extraordinary country. The sculptures made in porcelain by Maestro Dionisio Cimarelli have been created in Jingdezhen, well known place for its production of porcelain.

The high professional profile of the sculptor is unquestionable, attested by a long international experience through America, Asia and Europe. He has also participated to several lessons and conferences at prestigious Academic Institutions obtaining various recognitions such as, the recent appointment as art supervisor of the important and large architecture project ZhongKai SheShan Luxury Villas of Shanghai.

In the moment in which artists do their best to guide new tendencies, committing themselves to transform sculptures in furnishing, Maestro Cimarelli starts from a modern style of sculpture, which going through the spatio-temporal perception, arrives to a more classic level. Thanks to his researches on restoration, the artist claims a specialized competence of the sculpting techniques of the great Maestri of the past as well as a deep knowledge of the masterpieces of the most important classic sculptors.

With his production he was able to combine the antique perfection with the contemporary art creating delicate and precious sculptures like jewels, merging two millenary cultures such as Chinese and Italian in an original and harmonic way. The original contribution from Maestro Dionisio establishes the bases for a stronger collaboration between the two countries."
Shanghai, May 2008
Prof. Maria Weber
Director of Italian Cultural Institute Beijing

"What is so fascinating about Dionisio`s work? He has seemingly made the opposite journey: the works you see span about 15 years. They begin with abstract forms and end with, if I may call them such, classical ones. His early work is marked by its scepticism towards figures. An abstract concept is made concrete in the sculpture simply called Gedanke, "Thought". Not the thinker sitting and thinking as with Rodin, but the attempt at the sculptural realisation of the Idea of Thought. As you can see, the thought has its beginning, it branches off, becomes uncertain and heavy. Dionisio tells of his work as a restorer at the Louvre, which he did for two years. During this time he found his way back to classical models and started that which he calls the "Search", the word he uses the most while talking about himself. He is searching for antique models, he is searching in the Italian Quattrocento and what he has achieved is truly exceptional. His sculptures radiate an immense inner power, characters develop their own unmistakable personality.
Antique and classical elements are not merely added on, they become truly modern, but his work speaks to us in a language familiar and traditional, the syntax and meaning of which we yet know. However, it is difficult to pin down where the fascination lies: sometimes it is the roughness of the sculpture which alienates it from antiquity and carries it into here and now; then again it is the other way round, that the classical torso is fashioned out of cherry wood, polished and smooth, but still made of wood and thus irritating in its unfamiliar colour and texture.
The same goes for the drawings. For a sculptor sketches are a preliminary stage to the sculpture itself. In the case of Dionisio the sketches are proofs of his extraordinary talent. They are not feeling ahead, they are a record of one stage of his search. They are colourful even if no colour is to be seen, and are an independent counterpart of the sculptures.We are extremely grateful that we could give you, dear Dionisio, the opportunity to show us some of the stages of your search at the Berliner Philharmonie. Dear visitors, I thank you for your interest in art. I also thank you that you love and respect this house even when music is not its focus but visual art."
Berlin, 5th November 1999
Dr. Elmar Weingarten
(Intendant Berliner Philharmonischen Orchesters)

Italy Pavilion Shanghai World Expo, Shanghai, China
Headquarters of Marche Region in Ancona, Italy

Professor at The Art Students League of New York 2002 Lecturer and lectures at “King Saud” University of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. 2003 Lecturer at “Wimbledon School of Art“ in London,UK.