Serena Tani
Dal 05 ottobre al 02 novembre.
Opening Reception: 05 ottobre dalle 18 alle 20.
The Open Studio Firenze presenta Serena Tani – Main Room Project
The Open Studio Firenze invita l’artista multidisciplinare Serena Tani a presentare il suo lavoro con il progetto espositivo Main Room Project.
Attiva tra arti visive, pittura, scultura, installazioni e fashion design, Serena Tani lavora nel suo studio presso la Fornace del Museo della Ceramica di Montelupo Fiorentino. La sua ricerca esplora la leggerezza e le sottili stratificazioni della materia, sperimentando con carta, acciaio e, più recentemente, argilla allo stato liquido. La sua pratica si sviluppa anche attraverso mostre e laboratori di ricerca visiva, spesso connessi a temi ambientali e sociali.
Con Main Room Project l’artista presenta opere realizzate negli ultimi cinque anni: due installazioni principali – White Paper e Abstract Paper – accompagnate da libri d’artista, poesie in ceramica e piccole sperimentazioni scultoree.
White Paper nasce da un lavoro di ricerca sull’argilla bianca liquida, trasformata in sottilissime superfici cotte e vetrificate. L’opera si ispira alla prima farmacopea fiorentina del Cinquecento, riletta attraverso antiche scritture alchemiche e tradotta in poesia con la tecnica del caviardage. Da questa sperimentazione prende forma una serie di libri d’artista in ceramica, vere e proprie sculture poetiche, composte da carte fragili che custodiscono versi e parole. All’interno della terra bianca compaiono foglie d’ulivo, di quercia e piccoli rametti, che affiorano come tracce naturali e memorie sospese, capaci di evocare un passato nei boschi, tra rami e vento.
Complementare a questa ricerca, l’installazione Abstract Paper presenta carte sottilissime dipinte con colori vegetali e alimentari, piegate come origami. Le sfumature generate da pigmenti naturali si trasformano in inattese armonie cromatiche, restituendo a materiali quotidiani, fragili e quasi effimeri, una nuova vita e un nuovo significato attraverso l’arte.
Con questa mostra, The Open Studio Firenze rinnova la sua missione di dare spazio ad artiste e artisti che coniugano sperimentazione, memoria e ricerca contemporanea.
Sarà presente un'installazione composta da un video e/o opera in ceramica, frutto della collaborazione con l'artista Marco Ulivieri e l'attrice Sonia Coppoli.
The Open Studio Firenze presents Serena Tani – Main Room Project
The Open Studio Firenze is pleased to invite multidisciplinary artist Serena Tani with her exhibition project Main Room Project.
Active across visual arts, painting, sculpture, installations, and fashion design, Tani works from her studio at the Fornace of the Museum of Ceramics in Montelupo Fiorentino. Her research explores lightness and subtle layers of matter, experimenting with paper, steel, and, more recently, liquid clay. Her practice also unfolds through exhibitions and collaborative visual research workshops, often connected to environmental and social themes.
With Main Room Project, the artist presents works created over the past five years: two major installations – White Paper and Abstract Paper – alongside artist books, ceramic poems, and small sculptural experiments.
White Paper stems from an investigation into white liquid clay, transformed into extremely thin, fired, and glazed surfaces. The work is inspired by the first Florentine pharmacopoeia of the 16th century, reinterpreted through ancient alchemical writings and translated into poetry using the caviardage technique. From this experimentation emerges a series of artist books in ceramics, true poetic sculptures, fragile clay pages that preserve verses and words. Within the white earth appear olive leaves, oak leaves, and small branches, surfacing as natural traces and suspended memories that evoke a past among woods, branches, and wind.
Complementing this research, Abstract Paper presents extremely thin sheets painted with vegetal and food-based pigments, folded like origami. The colors blend into unexpected chromatic nuances, transforming simple, everyday, almost ephemeral materials into artworks that acquire a renewed meaning and presence.
Through this exhibition, The Open Studio Firenze reaffirms its mission to provide space for artists who combine experimentation, memory, and contemporary research.
IN THE ARTIST’S WORDS
Can you tell us about your first memory connected to working with your hands?
My very first memory of manual work dates back to kindergarten, when I first encountered the Giotto brand drawing pad and wooden pencils of the same brand. On the cover, you could see the figure of the young shepherd drawing on stone—probably Giotto himself watching. That was the beginning of my coloring the white spaces, filling sheets with images and color.
Then came pongo, my first sculpting material… Later, in third grade, I created my first large wax pastel painting on a sheet of Bristol-type cardstock. It was even framed and stayed with me for many years.
Who has influenced your approach to materials?
For many years, I worked in fashion design, but I have always kept my “art making” separate from the world of “fashion and marketing.”
I experimented with many materials—tissue papers, silks, leathers, linen, chiffon. I would say that the lightness and transparency of certain tissue papers, of light paper, of rice paper, has definitely influenced my artistic research. Eventually, I began recreating that same delicacy with liquid clay in millimetric layers.
What is your favorite color, and why?
My favorite color is definitely white, in all its shades. White contains all colors and gives images their three-dimensionality, creating a kind of Kabuki theater, a play of light and shadow.
It is the color of light and refinement, filled with infinite possibilities—from writing to painting, to the freedom of expression. “Blank page” — carta bianca — the courage to begin, is white. It also conveys a sense of clarity, order, and minimalism.
How has your work changed when moving from the studio to being shown in public spaces?
When I exhibit my work outside the studio—whether in a gallery, museum, or other space—I always change the direct order of the exhibition project.
I like to think of different ways of displaying the works, presenting them as installations rather than simple “showpieces.” I tend to create a kind of narrative, with a theme, description, and poetic prose behind the images, whether they are sculptures, paintings, or videos.
I spend a lot of time thinking about how to bring out and help the public deeply understand my long-term research on delicate materials and profound social themes.
In 2020, I began experimenting with liquid clay—its various firings and breakages—the earth that, from liquid, solidifies into paper and books of millimetric thickness. These works tell of nature, pharmaceutical and galenic recipes, ancient apothecaries, transforming into hermetic, minimal poetry.
As this is your first exhibition at The Open Studio in Florence, how do you feel about sharing your intimate world so publicly, and in such a setting?
Over the years I have shared many exhibitions and projects with the public, in major museums and galleries, and my works are included in both public and private collections.
Currently, Main Room Project is my first exhibition at The Open Studio in Florence.
The Open Studio is a space that is at once a studio, gallery, and showroom, and I was very happy to be invited by artist Marcela Gottardo to exhibit my works there.
The exhibition project immediately took shape in a narrative and dynamic way — not a static show that feels difficult to enter, but one of unique works: experimental papers in liquid clay and pure cellulose, moving between painting and sculpture. It is a story where the viewer is invited — joyfully and curiously — to immerse themselves.
In the main room there are poetic artist’s books made of extremely thin clay, where the pages deceive the visitor, making them wonder whether they are paper or ceramic. There is also a video installation created in collaboration with artist Marco Ulivieri, featuring my poem Olio di Scorpioni (Scorpion Oil), narrated in the video by actress Sonia Coppoli.
Finally, there are pure white canvases on the poignant theme of femininity and fragility, where pins pierce the surrounding space, circling on the tips of millimetric ceramic fragments.
Serena Tani
October 21, 2025