Paolo Ciampini

My Great Mum (the artist's mother, a quintessential Italian matriarch)

1996

Paolo Ciampini was born in Montopoli in Val d'Arno, Italy in 1941. After graduating from the Art Institute of Cascina (Pisa) in 1962, he completed his studies at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence in 1989. Following many years he spent devoted to teaching artistic subjects in various Italian institutes, he became an engraving assistant at the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice and then in Bologna and Florence. He is a professor of engraving techniques at the Florentine Academy. Among the international awards he has received are the prizes in various categories won at the 3rd biennial of Bangkok and Mini Print Lessedra, Triennale of Warsaw, Triennale of Kochi (Japan), Triennale of Chamaliéres (France), Skopje, Yunnan (China), Okinawa (Japan), Varna (Bulgaria), Bitola (Macedonia), Seoul, Bhopal (India) and several others. He has been president or member of countless juries of important biennials and triennials in Italy and abroad (Macedonia, Bulgaria, Egypt) and is an honorary ambassador for the arts between Italy and Macedonia. Ciampini has held several engraving workshops in Pisa, at the International School of Graphics in Venice and that of Il Bisonte in Florence, at the Minia University in Egypt, and at Indiana University in Bloomington (USA). His works are permanently hosted in various institutions and museums in Italy and abroad, including Osten Gallery (Skopje), Silpakorn University (Bangkok), Faculty of Fine Arts Zamalek (Cairo), American Athene Institute, Minia University (Egypt), Kochi-Ken Museum (Japan), Donetck (Ukraine), Sakima Art Museum Okinawa (Japan), Gualan Culture at Art Center (China), Art Museum of Douro (Portugal), Art Museum of Varna (Bulgaria), Panstowe Muzeum Na Majdanku (Poland), Art Museum of Evora (Portugal), Bitola (Macedonia), Reykjavik (Iceland), Musèe Villa Médicis (Ville de Saint Maur, Fr), Sunkok Museum and Gallery (Seoul), Corcoran Museum of Art (Washington DC, USA), Indiana University Museum (Bloomington, USA), Bertarelli Foundation (Milan), Alberto Martini Art Gallery (Oderzo), Osimo, Bagnacavallo and several others.