For the winter holidays, the Iris Ceramica Group showrooms dress up to the nines, displaying the creative magic of international artists in their windows.
In Milan, Paris, London, Berlin and Marbella; the ICG Galleries in Europe’s main cities, trace a magical path that turns the windows into gold.
The Magical Journey is the concept inspiring five different international artists invited to interpret the holiday climate in a non-conventional manner, using the idea of magical transformation: a Winter Alchemy.
The transparent external windows become the canvas on which each of these artists will draw their magic, using the 4 colours of the alchemic journey: black, white, red and gold.
MILAN
The Magical Journey therefore continues, and in its Winter Alchemy Edition, stops in Milan, where Joanne Elizabeth Shipp will be decorating the window with her familiar style: a rich composition of micro-drawings, sketches, icons and symbols that bring life to a landscape steeped in meaning.
“I created a precious world inhabited by subjects that symbolically represent the idea of journey and transformation within a frame. The caterpillar and the butterfly, origami doves – one carrying an olive branch – also a symbol of peace, love and purity.
The snowflakes add a typical festive feel of winter to this transformation. I added many diamonds, stars and moons, all elements used in the alchemy world to add a touch of light and wonder.” – is the artist's inspiration.
PARIS
The Journey continues in Paris with the works of Héléna Soubeyrand, an artist whose soft, light lines come from observing nature and people. A single line that never seems to break, a line that seems to almost fly across the glass canvas.
“Material that is gradually elevated, as if ceramics were transformed into light. The geometric shapes recall mineral elements and fire: the phases of the alchemic process. There are also other symbols, such as the arc, the house that tells of this passage, this transformation. The gesture is simple, almost ephemeral, evoking the lightness of winter and the peaceful wonder of the revealing light.” Héléna's work is hand-made, with acrylic paint and markers.
BERLIN
Then we move to Berlin with Daniela Spoto who creates a window telling of the alchemic journey with her evocative illustrations, with their rich details, faces and objects that talk to anyone who looks.
“I imagined a garden in which nature performs its alchemy: flowers revealing new forms of life, hybrid creatures bearing witness to completed metamorphoses, and a white fox observing this creative process in wonder. Between the moon and the sub, the poetic winter becomes the theatre of continuous revelations.” – Daniela Spoto explains.
LONDON
In London, the trendsetting city par excellence, Jessica Rose Bird paints a work on the window that smells of fashion and contemporaneity.
“The Arctic fox, which changes its fur with the seasons, moves through a city and landscape in transition. My charcoal drawings, reinterpreted in painting, trace that silent change of light, shape and life. A city soaked in moonlight, transformed by the falling snow, with the traditional festive stars warming the heart of winter.” – the artist explains.
CHARITY DECORATIONS
Quarto Fuoco
Alongside these artistic windows, art joins with the values of solidarity and inclusion, with the contribution of the Quarto Fuoco® project.
In the ICG Galleries - in Milan, London, Paris, Berlin and Marbella - the Christmas trees traditionally displayed during the holidays are decorated with the ceramic baubles created by the people from the associations joining the project sponsored by Fondazione Iris Ceramica Group ETS.
Quarto Fuoco® engages voluntary and third sector associations across Italy with the aim of promoting – through the art of ceramic decoration - the interaction and enhancement of young people living in situations of hardship, conflict and disability.
In the Quarto Fuoco® ceramic products, art represents the expressive means of social inclusion and, for the first time, these charitable craft objects will cross Europe as ambassadors of ESG values.