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Nedda Guidi, Sculptural vase with informal decoration, Rome, 1959. Courtesy Richard Saltoun Gallery.
Nedda GUIDI (1927 - 2015) is one of Italy's most important sculptor’s artists, who challenged the dominant trends of her time. Graduated in philosophy from the University of Urbino, Guidi moved to Rome in the 1950, where she experimented extensively with ceramics – her beloved medium – in order to "retrieve a lost innocence and recover the originality of the material." Her work has been included for the first time at the 60th International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia 2024, Stranieri Ovunque (Foreigners Everywhere).
She devoted herself to painting and drawing since childhood, and later then deepened ceramic manufacturing techniques in the factories of Gualdo Tadino, finding in this practice the means to express herself for over forty years.
Guidi was an alchemist and innovator who explored the intersection of abstraction and figuration in her works.
Her alchemical investigations into oxidisation processes and pigments appear in her "swatch tables," which record the chemical formula, cooking process or the place and date of where she found the earth she used: a permanent archive of her research. Her experimentation further materialises in the colour gradients of her large scale modular geometric sculptures.
Invested in opening a space for non-normative bodies in culture, among multiple other initiatives, she was part of a group of artists working on the rehabilitation of children affected by down syndrome and co-founded the iconic feminist collective Cooperativa Beato Angelico in 1976. The cooperativa acted as a self-organised gallery and comprised eleven female members: eight artists and three critics. It was active from 1976 to 1978 and focused on the relationship between art and feminism by unsystematically publishing and documenting past and contemporary female artist's positions.
Selected exhibitions include Galleria Numero, Roma (1964); Galleria Numero Florence (1965); Biennale della Scultura, ceramica, metalli, legno, tessuti e altri materiali - ‘Quindici anni di ricerca in ceramica (1961-1976) di Nedda Guidi', curated by Enrico Crispolti, Gubbio, Palazzo dei Consoli (1976); Galleria de Serpenti, Rome (1989); Galleria Rondanini, Roma (1990); La scultura ceramica contemporanea in Italia, La Galleria Nazionale, Rome (2015); Gubbio Ceramic Biennial (2016); Repetto Gallery, London (2019); The Unexpected Subject: 1978 Art and Feminism in Italy, FM Centre for Contemporary Art, Milan (2019); Mendes Wood DM at Villa Era, Piedmont (2021); Between language and object, Gramma_Epsilon Gallery, Athens (2021); Richard Saltoun Gallery, Rome (2022).
In the Venice Biennale 2024, her artistic production of the 1960s and 1970s is on display at Forte Marghera, while the most recent works are at the Giardini della Biennale.