INTERVIEW WITH CERAMIC ARTIST GIORGIA PIU
Ceramics and painting, Rome
Rose deNour
Giorgia Piu
Clay arrived and felt as natural as breathing. Years later, painting came back to her — and now the two share the same surface.
Giorgia Piu calls clay her greatest life partner. She didn't go looking for it. A friend was taking a ceramics course in their Rome neighbourhood; Giorgia joined, and the moment her hands touched the clay she recognised a connection — a fine sense of belonging.
She had always been, in her words, a deeply artistic soul. She drew and painted from childhood, and loved design and architecture enough to follow course after course in search of a way to express what she carried inside. Born in Rome, with family roots in Sardinia and Southern Italy, she works from a Mediterranean inheritance that keeps her anchored in organic forms, natural matter and a love for everything alive.
Her ceramics began at Lab123, Matilde Tibuzzi's laboratory in Rome, while she was holding down two jobs. Not being able to give herself to it full time was unsettling; early on, she knew she could do much more. The turning point came during the pandemic, when she met Maestro Libero Ortuso.
His teaching changed everything. From him she absorbed the sculptural coil technique, learned over long months of continuous work, which lets a piece flow with movement instead of simply standing still. But the freedom she found wasn't only technical. It was a structured path that also let her soul speak, and that meeting of discipline and release became the heartbeat of Rose de Nour.
The pieces are pale and raw-skinned, closer to weathered stone than to glaze: candelabra, lamps and small sculptures whose limbs lean toward one another. Her references run from Neolithic forms to Ruth Duckworth, Frida Kahlo and Picasso, clean, soft lines carried across centuries into the present. When she steps into the lab, she says, the problems stay at the door. What she hopes people feel, walking around a piece and seeing it from different angles, is something close to a hug.
And now there is painting again. After years away from the canvas, she has gone back to it, and brought the clay with her.
"He gave me so much desire to learn and to live my artistic life in a positive and light way. I finally felt free and without chains. I felt I could start a structured journey, but one that could also make my soul speak."
In conversation
Tell us about your greatest inspirations or influences.
I am constantly inspired by nature, its purest and most perfect beauty, and its strength. I approach matter in a free form that is completely instinctive and natural. My influences have several ramifications — perhaps this is also what makes the work unique.
"I love the fluidity of the contemporary style, but in the same way I feel deeply marked by our oldest roots, aiming at an emotional approach to my sculptures."
Do current innovations in technology affect your work as a creative?
Until now, in no way. On the contrary, I love to go back and look for styles and working methods from the past.
I am an ancient soul with a modern background.
Tell us about your creative process.
My approach to clay is constantly contemplative, a continuous dialogue with matter that leads me to honour the simplest gestures: the sound of water softening the earth, or the raw, material touch that takes me on a journey. She and I.
It depends on what I create. Normally I let the movement flow while trying to give an imprint to a precise idea. Each Nour collection talks about this.
"I love to experiment with shapes through small-scale creations, and then reproduce them on a medium or large scale."
Anything coming up that we should know about?
Yes! I plan to start practising ceramics outside of my home studio, creating workshops, and taking part in several art fairs, exhibitions and shows. I have a lot of exciting projects in the works and I can't wait to bring them to life.
I love design and furniture, and I never want to limit myself. Ceramic is a material so full of freedom that it would be a shame to take only one direction.
Clay on canvas
When we first spoke, Giorgia told us how much she missed painting — dedicating parts of the night to the sheet of paper and the pencil, travelling to other realities and dimensions.
Sculpture took so much energy, she said, that there was little left for it. But who knows, in the future.
So what changed?
I have always been a deeply artistic soul. Ever since I was a little girl, I used to draw and paint. A few years ago, unfortunately, I had somewhat lost my way with painting. Then, two or three years ago on my birthday, my partner — without even knowing about this hidden desire of mine — surprised me with a canvas and oil paints. Besides confirming the deep connection between us, it reignited the passion I've always held for painting, because it's something that makes me feel truly free and light.
In every painting, I pour out all my thoughts, emotions and feelings. My hand flew effortlessly across the canvas as soon as I picked it back up.
"By combining painting with ceramics, I create tactile textures using clay that I crumble directly onto the canvas. The acrylic or oil paint then blends with these layers to create textures you can actually touch."
Combining these two worlds is something I absolutely love. Whenever I see my sculptures alongside my paintings in people's homes, I feel so happy, because I'm creating what I love, and there is truly nothing more beautiful in the world.
Every corner, even the village far from the metropolis.
Italy is a country that could be a power, but it is not valued by its governments, current and past. The roots of the nation, the artisan workshops, inevitably close. This, Giorgia says, is infuriating.
And yet: "I look out over the world and I am extremely fascinated to see so many choices, so much free expression and so much support between artists. It creates a kind of breath for me."
Art is life.
Mens sana
in corpore
sano.
"This should be the mantra at the base of our lives, despite the busy times we are living in. I try to help myself, especially before and after long sessions in the lab, by practising yoga or walking — activities that help you find your balance, but also feel your body."