Paola
Maccioni

Paola Maccioni (Cagliari, 1980) is an artist living and working in Veneto. Her research focuses exclusively on aluminum, explored through a sculptural language that arises from the transformation of the metal surface.

A self-taught artist, since 2019 she has developed a personal path based on the manual working of thin aluminum sheets through negative chasing, engraving and chiselling. She works the material without hammer or punches: the gesture acts from inside the sheet, altering its structure through controlled pressure.

The work arises from a slow, calibrated process, in which minimal variations of the gesture generate reliefs, tensions and depth, turning the metal plane into a dynamic surface traversed by light.

«Gesture does not add matter: it pushes it from within.»

Paola Maccioni's practice reinterprets the tradition of chasing from a contemporary perspective, shifting attention from the decorative element to the construction of form. Aluminum thus becomes the site of a continuous dialogue between surface and volume, control and transformation, memory and possibility.

Research

Aluminum is at the centre of Paola Maccioni's research: a material chosen for its lightness, its resistance and its capacity to continually alter its relationship with light.

Through manual working, the metal surface is transformed into a space of relation between mark, depth and perception. The relief arises from the internal tension of the sheet, which evolves from a two-dimensional plane into a sculptural presence able to reveal hidden forms and structures.

The research develops through the observation of geometries, textures, natural structures and images belonging to individual and collective memory, reinterpreted until they take on a symbolic value.

The works explore the relationship between order and change, fragility and resistance, balance and transformation. The surface is not a mere support but a place where the material retains the gesture and makes the process of its transformation visible.

Light becomes an active component of the work: it does not merely illuminate the surface but continually alters its perception, bringing out variations of relief, depth and movement.

PaolaMaccioni

Research

Paola
Maccioni