Cristina Fiorenza (b. Naples, Italy) is an artist based in Vienna, Austria. She studied architecture at the Federico II University of Naples (1992–1998), with Erasmus exchanges at the Bauhaus University in Weimar and TU Berlin. Between 2017 and 2019, she studied ceramics at the University of Applied Arts (Angewandte) in Vienna.
She worked as an architect for several years, gaining technical and creative experience, but over time, her passion for art grew stronger. For more than a decade, she explored different artistic approaches, focusing on drawing, painting, and installation. In recent years, ceramics has become her primary medium, allowing her to experiment with form, space, and material in a hands-on way.
Fiorenza has exhibited her work in solo and group exhibitions across Italy, Austria, the United States, Germany, Portugal, Turkey, and other countries. Her pieces are included in major collections such as the Strabag Collection and the Leopold Museum in Vienna, as well as private and public collections in Germany, Austria, Spain, France, the United States, India, Brazil, and Italy.
Her interest in ceramics is closely tied to a curiosity about different cultural traditions. She studied majolica techniques in Vietri sul Mare, Italy, a town known for its rich ceramic history. She also traveled to Jingdezhen, China, where she worked alongside local artisans and where she hopes to establish an artist residency in the future.
In addition to her studio practice, Fiorenza has been invited to create site-specific ceramic installations in private and residential spaces, exploring the possibilities of larger-scale works.
Visit Cristina Fiorenza’s website and Instagram page.
Featured work
Selected works, 2022-2024
I worked for several years as an architect and, in parallel, as an artist. My formal research has developed on this dualism. I work mainly with different media, installation, painting, drawing on ceramics. In recent years, ceramics has become a very important medium in my development.
Everything revolves around the key words ‘ephemeral’ and ‘human’. The spontaneous architecture that forms on the outskirts of cities, the formation of shantytowns in contrast to the ideal landscape of the ‘escape to paradise’.
My ceramic artifacts evoke the shape of vases, but in reality, they are containers that, like dwellings, guard and protect. The glazes that cover them blend into a dense mass inseparable from the object itself, conveying a sense of emotion, memory, compassion and solemnity.
The shapes of the sculptures emerge relatively spontaneously but follow a clear design concept. They are often compositions of multiple parts, and, as happens in sculpture, the object takes shape as it develops, changing from the initial sketch. Besides free-standing sculptures, over the years I have also developed the idea of a vertical ceramic garden made of communicating vases that form a connected system. This allows me to play with plants and glazes, merging everything into a large wall sculpture where organic matter interacts with inorganic matter. I strongly believe that ceramics should be a medium to bring together artisanal tradition, artistic creativity, technical research, and human themes.
The ceramic sculptures I create represent themes such as dissolution and decay, aspects that are part of everyone’s life. In a sense, I instinctively try to trace a path that goes from the romantic idealization of working with ceramics to the desire to return to the origins. The result is an artifact that marks a moment in a broader exploration. My works are precarious, yet at the same time, they have a brutalist character and are strongly material.
