BIOGRAPHY

I was born in 1957 in Florence, where I grew up and still live. With a precocious inclination, after artistic studies and experiences in the field of experimental theater, in the mid-70s I began an uninterrupted journey in the world of visual arts.

In 1972, in my first year of high school, I created my first artistic and theatrical papier-mâché masks. In 1977, I founded the Atelier d'Arte I MASCHERERI, a hotbed of artistic ideas and creations that in just a few years attracted international attention, allowing me to export my art, visit many countries and meet artists of the most varied tendencies. At the same time, I frequented the Florentine artistic environment, a vibrant destination and stage for painters, sculptors and critics in those years.

In '79 I took a long 2-month trip to the USA and Mexico where I made artistic and commercial contacts and met the great Mexican papier-mâché artist Sergio Bustamante.

In 1980 I moved to NYC for 4 months to study Jazz drums and Latin percussion with the great Puerto Rican drummer Frankie Malabe, now deceased.

In 1981 I had my first exhibition with the Kent's Art Gallery in Florence, followed by others, both in Italy and abroad; then I was invited to the United States, Japan, Singapore and Germany. The 80s were for I Maschereri a decade of extraordinary intensity, work, great entrepreneurial success and artistic development.

In the 90s I began to insert a lot of pictorial research and technical stylistic innovation into the masks. From 91 to 93 every year I went for a month to S. Domingo, Colombia and Venezuela, for both artistic and musical reasons, or to be able to dedicate myself profitably to another great passion: music, never abandoned, especially as a drummer, percussionist and lover of Latin music. From '92 to 2002 I was El Chevere DJ, achieving great success as a DJ and organizer of evenings, events and musical festivals in the field of Latin music, which always included a space to exhibit my painting and that of Latin American colleagues.

Since 1997, being freer both materially and spiritually, I dedicate much more time to painting. I do landscapes, portraits and some copies of Renaissance paintings on commission. I begin to elaborate new existential and philosophical ideas, fundamental for the continuation of my artistic research. 2002 is a year of caesura, concluding both the experience of El Chevere DJ and that of I Maschereri Atelier, fundamental for fully developing the techniques of modeling, painting and decoration with and on the most diverse materials.

Since 2005, after 2 years of “sabbatical”, I have been dedicating myself exclusively to painting. The basic idea of “LE SANTE SOSPESE” begins to take shape, a central pictorial project that I do not consider concluded yet, in which the female figure dominates, symbolically set in a spiritual space, a neo-paganism critical of religions.

Sometimes I have been able to exhibit these paintings in evocative and suggestive environments such as crypts, lodges, deconsecrated churches, hypogea lit by torches and candles, as for example in July 2009 in the crypt of the Medieval Cistern of S. Maria a Monte (PI).

SB PTOLEMÆUS

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CHRONOLOGY

1976 - Manufacture of commedia dell'arte, theatrical and decorative masks; street sale, mainly on Ponte vecchio in Florence. I brand my masks with the ‘I Maschereri’ logo
1977 - At the same time I teach papier-mâché at the Palazzo Spinelli Institute for Art and Restoration in Florence.
1978 - Formal founding of I MASCHERERI and acquisition of a large 160 sq. m. workshop in the historic centre of Florence, where production and teaching were transferred.
1979 - 2-month trip to the USA and Mexico to establish artistic and business relations.
1980 - Temporary move to NYC, from July to the end of October, to study jazz drums and Latin percussion. On this occasion I wear masks at The Drama Book Store, which I had met the previous year.
1981 - February. First mask exhibition at La Kent's Art Gallery in Florence. A few months later La Beck Feldmeier, following the purchase of a large quantity of our masks, invited me to hold a work demonstration as part of the events dedicated to the Venice Carnival at their department store in Munich. Drafting and printing of a first brochure catalogue enriched with colour and b&w plates. Return to NYC to make and cultivate further artistic contacts.
1982 - The Masqueraders again invited to assemble a flying workshop for the carnival event at the Beck Feldmeier in Munich. Afterwards we are invited to a long exhibition on Italian products and culture held at the Ka.De.We. department store in Berlin. A new exhibition is held at the Studio Due Gallery in Bari. The famous magazine ‘Town & Country’ comes out with a mask of mine on the cover. The Galleria Della Torre in Lugano, Switzerland, invites me to hold another exhibition with a demonstration of work on leather masks. Exhibition entitled ‘Cartapesta d'Autore’; held in the winter months at the Centro del Mutamento, Monza.
1983 - Participation in ‘Le Bal Masque’ and ‘Masquerade’, twin exhibitions held first at the Los Angeles Museum of Art and then at the Museum of London. In addition to participating with our own private collections, specially made pieces and our own iconographic material, I was asked to supply masks for the opening ball. Opening of a second sales outlet/showroom in the pedestrian area of the city centre, a stone's throw from Piazza della Signoria. The years of participation in exhibitions in the furnishing accessories and art objects sector began; the first was the Florence Gift Mart autumn edition
1984 - Exhibitions in the furnishing and art objects sector: Florence Gift Mart, Spring and Autumn editions. Macef, Milan, Spring and Autumn editions.
1985 - Participation with supplies of our articles and work demonstrations at the ‘Ecco l'Italia’ event organised by Bloomingdales department stores in major American cities. Our participation was limited to New York and Miami Exhibitions in the furniture and art objects sector: Florence Gift Mart, Spring and Autumn ediz. Macef, Milan, Spring and Autumn editions.
1986 - Ordered Commedia dell'Arte and Venetian Carnival masks from the London Museum for an exhibition on theatre and carnival costumes of the 18th century in Italy and France. The masks then remained on permanent display at the museum itself. The Japanese department store Seibu organised the great ‘Ciao Italia’ event, in which I took part with the usual formula of sending our artefacts and work demonstrations that were held in the major Japanese metropolises of Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto. April: opening of the new large sales outlet/showroom in Via dei Tavolini, a stone's throw from Piazza della Signoria. Exhibitions in the furniture and art objects sector: Florence Gift Mart, Spring and Autumn editions. Macef, Milan, Spring and Autumn editions.
1987 - Exhibitions in the sector of furnishings and art objects: Florence Gift Mart, Spring and Autumn editions. Macef, Milan, ed. Spring and Autumn. Chibi-Cart, Milan, ed. Spring and Autumn. Cosmoprof, Bologna.
1988 - Exhibitions in the furnishing and art objects sector: Florence Gift Mart, ediz. Spring and Autumn. Macef, Milan, ed. Spring and Autumn. Chibi-Cart, Milan, ed. Spring and Autumn. Cosmoprof, Bologna. The large atelier in Borgo pinti became unusable. With great inconvenience and delays, production moves to the showroom in Via dei Tavolini.
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1978: Borgo Pinti atelier: at work modelling Pantalone's masks in clay