We are in Syracuse, in the state of New York, at the Everson Museum of Art, which is once again bringing into the American spotlight a central figure in the artistic research of postwar Italy. We are talking about Nanni Valentini (Sant’Angelo in Vado, 1932 – Vimercate, 1985), an artist who revolutionized the language of ceramics from both a material and conceptual perspective. On view through September 6, the exhibition Interspaces retraces his career under the supervision of art historian Flaminio Gualdoni, with curatorship by Garth Johnson and Luca Bochicchio, respectively curators at the Everson Museum of Art and the Museo della Ceramica di Savona.
The Return of Nanni Valentini to the United States
This is not a belated discovery, but rather a return to a place that had already contributed to legitimizing Valentini’s work on the international stage in the late 1950s. The reference is to the historic Ceramic International exhibition of 1958, the international evolution of the Ceramic Nationals, through which the Everson built over the decades a significant chapter in the history of contemporary ceramics. It was also thanks to Lucio Fontana that Valentini was introduced into that context, receiving an award and taking part in an exhibition circuit that included institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Detroit Institute of Arts.
The Exhibition of Nanni Valentini at the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse
The exhibition at the Everson Museum of Art focuses precisely on this conceptual transformation of ceramics. Trained at the Institute of Art for Ceramics in Faenza, Valentini progressively moved away from a functional conception of the material, asserting ceramics as fully part of the visual arts. The exhibition features ceramic wall surfaces, slabs marked by signs, incisions, and material tensions, in which clay and glaze lose any decorative purpose to become language itself. Between the 1960s and 1970s, he developed wall works and conceptual cycles that engaged in dialogue with contemporary Italian painting, culminating in the Trasparenza series, where surface, space, and matter become tools of critical inquiry. In collaboration with the Ligurian art gallery ABC-ARTE, the exhibition Interspaces forms part of a broader project that will continue in Italy in 2027, between Savona and Albisola, strengthening a dialogue rooted in the postwar period.
Ceramics as a Conceptual and Expressive Artistic Language
“The Everson has a unique history of supporting artists who push the boundaries of ceramics,” explains Elizabeth Dunbar, Director and CEO of the American museum. “Bringing Valentini’s work back into focus not only honors this legacy, but also invites new audiences to discover how ceramics can function as a conceptual and deeply expressive artistic language.”
Syracuse // through September 6, 2026
Nanni Valentini: Interspaces
Everson Museum of Art
