Artichoke Fossil Lamp by artist Jenna Basso Pietrobon

Born in 1986, Jenna Basso Pietrobon is an artist who fearlessly explores society through her personal experiences. She received her Masters in Fine Arts at Columbia University in 2017. Her work offers a raw critique of political, economic, and social systems, using a blend of painting, sculpture, photography, architecture, design, psychology, performance, and activism. Break the Mold: Within the world of ceramics, plaster molds are used to make duplicative objects; the molds are vessels which facilitate mass-production and mass-consumption. Her artistic practice turns a critical eye toward this type of rote production, and asks how we can instead turn the molds normally used to make repetitive identical pieces into vehicles for unique, one-of-a-kind pieces. Basso Pietrobon explains further, "In the 1950s, my grandparents left Italy for Canada, where my grandfather used his knowledge of ceramics to make lamps. Following his footsteps back to Nove, Italy almost 70 years later, I have returned to my grandfather’s town to likewise produce my own clay forms. Part of the proceeds of the sales will go towards the artisans in the town to help revitalize the craft of ceramics."