under the aegis of the Academy of Fine Arts of St. Petersburg

presents

MOTHER/EARTH Ten one-of-a-kinds by Simafra

For the 25th ARTIGIANATO E PALAZZO Exhibition, the organisers, Giorgiana Corsini and Neri Torrigiani, have decided to produce some sculptures of the young Florentine artist Riccardo Prosperi - aka "Simafra" - and the donations collected for these works will be given to the "MEMORIES OF RUSSIA IN FLORENCE" fund-raising campaign, promoted to help finance urgent restoration works on the artistic heritage linked to the existence, in 19th and early 20th century Florence, of numerous Russian communities.

Ten unique numbered pieces, presented in a special Catalogue, with an introduction by Natalia Parenko, Director of the St. Petersburg Art Academy in Florence.

Specifically, there will be sculptures of various diameters (roughly from 25 to 50 cm) that transform the idea of the folkloristic Russian Matryoshka dolls into concentric globes in which the “geological eras” are represented by materials that can be traced to the Siberian mines: gold, malachite, diamonds, hard coal, gas…

The spheres will be made of building materials and textures - externally the surface will be reminiscent of the Earth’s crust, with some linear, smooth areas - attributable to the malachite, ferrous black, gold, lava rock, and the exterior will be illuminated by the lustre of gold leaf. At a certain point - different every time - there will be a break, through which it will be possible to see the various cyclical transitions (Matryoshka effect) right through to a view of the inside of the smallest sphere: the core.

The idea aims to highlight the relationship between the Mother and the Earth. Mother Nature. So it is interesting to look more closely at this concept and the origins of the Matryoshka, described below:

“Matryoshkas are designed to convey a precise meaning: the word itself contains the Latin root mater, i.e. mother. And the symbolic fulcrum of these charming dolls is, indeed, the mother. The fact that each of them is contained inside a bigger Matryoshka renders the idea of the maternal womb cradling a smaller body inside it. So Matryoshkas can be taken as a generational model, with maternity and fertility as the primary and indispensable characteristics for their existence. The family could be another symbolic component and this is demonstrated by the fact that the largest doll is called the mother, while the smallest is called the seed.”

The theme chosen by Simafra aims, therefore, to touch the essence/innermost part of each living thing: the lymph of a tree, the heart of a human, the core of the Earth, the foetus of a mother-to-be.

With these 10 one-of-a-kinds - expressly conceived for the 25th ARTIGIANATO E PALAZZO Exhibition, for the "MEMORIES OF RUSSIA IN FLORENCE” fund-raising campaign, the artist interprets the theme of memory and Russia, from his own personal slant.

- Design: Riccardo Prosperi aka "Simafra" - Text in catalogue: Natalia Parenko, Director of the St. Petersburg Art Academy in Florence - Technical sponsor: Giusto Manetti Battiloro

RICCARDO PROSPERI SIMAFRA Riccardo Prosperi, known as Simafra, lives and works in Florence, the city where he was born. He started painting in 2000, working for a famous Florentine art restoration workshop, while studying with Prof. Ottavio Troiano.

As of 2004, he started taking part in competitions and group exhibitions in Tuscany, and in the space of a few years he began to exhibit in Italy and abroad. Between 2008 and 2010, he lived in Paris and then in Germany, working with numerous galleries: in 2009, with Ken’s Art in Florence, the following year with Galerie Golkar in Bonn and Infantellina Contemporary in Berlin.

In 2012 he took part in Art Arsenal, the international biennial in Kiev, and founded La Bottega Moderna in Florence, an independent cultural space which he also uses as his atelier.

In 2013, he had regular engagements in London: here he took part in the group exhibition Odds & Sods at the Art Moor House gallery, after which he exhibited at the Cadogan Contemporary gallery. In the two years that followed, he began working with the Virginie Barrou Planquart gallery in Paris, and it was here that he had his first solo exhibition in Paris in March 2015. With this gallery he also participated in numerous fairs in Europe. In May of the same year, at the Palazzo Panichi in Pietrasanta, he presented his project Le Quattro Stagioni (the four seasons), four canvases of monumental dimensions, which were subsequently exhibited also in Florence, in the prestigious setting of the Palazzo Gianfigliazzi-Bonaparte.

Since 2016 he has been working regularly with the Maddox Gallery of Mayfair in London and the Galleria Russo in Rome and Istanbul. In the same year, he also took part in the group exhibition Erranti Erotici Eretici, organised by the Fondazione Vacchi through the critic/curator Marco Tonelli, in the Castello di Grotti, Siena. Later he returned to Pietrasanta to exhibit at the Ex-Marmi gallery, which hosted his solo exhibition, Humus; still in 2016 he worked on his first site-specific installation, entitled Autostima and contributed to the group exhibition Ecosistemi at the Fondazione Biagiotti’s Progetto Arte in Florence.

In 2017, he opened with Eden, his first solo exhibition in London, hosted in January by the Maddox Gallery. In May 2017, the artist presented a new series of works inspired by the four elements in the Galleria Russo in Rome, at his solo exhibition entitled Aequilibrium.

In 2018, after a brief stay in Finland, the artist painted a series dedicated to Lapland, which is to become part of the prestigious “Alessandro Grassi” collection to be loaned to the Centro “Pecci“ of Prato. At the same time another two of his works are to be included in the group exhibition in the Kakslauttanen Art Gallery in Finland. In cooperation with the Galleria Russo in Rome, he will take part in “ArteFiera” in Bologna and “Art Verona”. He is to be contacted by the editorial offices of “Exibart” for selection for their book entitled “222 emerging artists worth investing in 2018”.

The year 2019 sees him starting a new venture in the United States: through London’s “Maddox” Gallery, he will start exhibiting in the new gallery of Los Angeles.

Over the course of his career, Simafra has gained the respect of many collectors and his works feature in prestigious national and international collections, such as those of: the Lebanese Minister of Finance, Diego della Valle at Palazzo Tod’s, the Vice-President of Volkswagen, the Prince of Qatar, as well as in the New York apartment of actress, Cameron Diaz, and the Ristorante Cipriani in Ibiza.