Born in 1959 in Turin, Italy, Tiziana studied Fine Arts and Ceramics at the Camberwell College of Arts under the tutelage of Richard Slee, with visiting lecturers such as Damien Hirst and Jonathon Miller. During her studies, her artistic practice guided her to experiment with glass. Consequently, she did a short course in Architectural Glass at Wolverhampton University after her degree in London.
From early on, Tiziana was interested in the human body and the idea that clothes surround it like a second skin. Inspired by the works of the Arte Povera artist Giuseppe Penone, who questioned the relationship between the human body and the external environment, she researched to find her own expression. Having in mind the nude sculptures often found in Renaissance works and in Antiquity, she reversed the representation of the human body by its absence. She created a large series of porcelain-dipped children’s dresses. “Proud”, one oeuvre from this period around the year 2000 is our artwork of the month for October 2020.
While working with glass, Tiziana included a variety of metals such as copper, aluminium, silver and gold leaf. Additionally, she encapsulated fragments of her dress-series into fused glass. Here the artist superimposed two delicate materials referring at the same time to the fragility of the human body. In other works, she used mixed-media techniques. Thereby she integrated inter-alia one of her other preferred artistic forms, photography. Often she took a pre-existing form as the point of departure, for example tea-bags, which she puts in a broader context.
In her latest works, Tiziana has a different approach. She creates flowing, organic, delicately constructed forms. As echoes of natural structures, they grow like flowers out of their initial arrangements and almost develop an independent existence. An example of these vital and lively sculpture series is “Blossoming” – a collection of porcelain spirals.
Most recently, these new oeuvres were shown in Tiziana’s solo exhibition in the Atelier Pecheur de Lune in Cotignac, France. Soon they will be on view in the 109 Gallery in Nice, France (23 – 30 October 2020). For more than 30 years, the artist has participated in numerous exhibitions in Great Britain, France, Italy and Germany. Moreover, she was represented at many art fairs in Europe and the United States. Her works are shown in the collection of MIAAO (Museo Internazionale d’Arti Applicate Oggi) Turin, Italy and in the Castellamonte Museum, Italy.
Tiziana lives and works in Cambridge, UK and Cannes, France.
www.tizianabendall-brunello.co.uk