Vincenzo D’Alba. Racconti di Ceramica: Contemporary Ceramics, Art and Design
- Jan 22
- 4 min read
Updated: Feb 3
Interview by Amalia Di Lanno
Vincenzo d’Alba is an architect, designer, and illustrator. An eclectic personality, he boasts a rich and wide-ranging portfolio of projects that reflects a well-established experience across multiple fields. Indeed, he is a multidisciplinary artist who, through different media, is able to communicate and convey his ideas and design vision in a transversal way. An artist fully immersed in the creative process, he brings every element into harmony, making each one an essential part of a unified whole—whether conceived in two-dimensional drawings or constructed in volumetric, expanded form.
Vincenzo D’Alba’s work unfolds at the intersection of drawing, architecture, and contemporary ceramics, where disciplines overlap rather than define boundaries. In his practice, ceramics are not treated as a final medium but as a field of research—one that absorbs drawing, structure, and conceptual thinking.
From Kiasmo to Collezione Disegnata. The process of a new beginning
Ante Operam, in architecture, is the initial state of a building before any structural intervention. Metaphorically, therefore, this is exactly the point from which we begin this interview. So, before speaking about the past, let us start from the present—from the here and now—so that we can then look back and retrace the steps, the work, and the choices that have shaped moments of change, necessary to the growth and development of the creative process.
The birth of Collezione Disegnata. Vincenzo D’Alba talks about his new artistic project, a newly founded brand developed in collaboration with engineer and art director Francesco Maggiore, former co-founder of Kiasmo, a design Italian brand established in 2011.
How did the Collezione Disegnata come into being?
The collection Disegnata is a new synthesis in which drawings, artworks, and products converge, crossing disciplines and spaces, from art to design. Since 2011, I have pursued a constant research path that, starting from drawing, has progressively translated into style. It has been a journey largely shared with Francesco Maggiore, with whom I have always shared a unified vision capable of combining culture and enterprise. Today, this vision continues within the Disegnata collection.
On one side, there is the habit of drawing; on the other, the inquietude of the collection itself: two tensions that have led to a natural fusion into a brand capable of preserving and promoting a corpus of works in continuous transformation.
How did you begin your path?
The beginnings were marked by drawing and chance. Architectural training later allowed me to deepen a multidisciplinary vocation, which over time has become irreversible.
Is there a philosophy or inspiration that guides your work?
My greatest inspiration is quantity. Quantity is quality: a formula through which to investigate multiple fields, maintaining distance, abstraction, and depth.
What role does tradition—territorial or familiar—play in your creative process?
Private, historical, and geographical traditions are important, especially on an unconscious level, because they inevitably influence one’s own path. However, each production must be able to translate these traditions into the present, eliminating formalism, rhetoric, and simplistic metaphors.
In relation to the territory, how important is the relationship with artisans today?
I believe that artisans no longer exist in the traditional sense, but rather small and medium-sized enterprises. Relationships with these realities are essential, especially within the territory, starting from Uggiano La Chiesa (a small town in the Salento area). The disappearance of the “artisan tradition” should not be seen as a drama, but as a time of attempt and consolidation of new organizations. There is greater reliability, both in production processes and in execution times and commercial capacity. For this reason, I believe that the current historical and geographical context is particularly favorable to the control of the project and, consequently, of the product.
Are there materials you prefer to work with in your ceramic practice?
The materials I prefer are intangible. Without them, matter could not assume the surprising aspects we admire in works. Only a conscious design approach is capable of restoring the materiality we need.
How would you like your work—especially your ceramics—to be perceived?
In two opposing ways:– randomly, because it allows the discovery of new analogies;– taxonomically, because it allows the systematization of production, creating a recognizable cosmology, even if not entirely explicable.
In contemporary ceramics research, process and development imply movement. What role do they play for the artist?
Research and process have been, depending on the artists, partly mysterious, now exposed and representative. This is because revealing does not always mean understanding. Often, the invisible precedes the visible. The experimentation within the “art” area is now a necessary condition to avoid improvisations linked to easy social involvement, to findings that are occasional or equally deceptive graphic capacities.
Short Biography
Vincenzo D’Alba (Lecce, 1979) is an Italian artist, designer, and architect whose practice explores ceramics as a research-driven medium, rooted in drawing and conceptual investigation. He has collaborated with major Italian institutions including Domus, the Istituto Centrale per la Grafica, and the Accademia Nazionale di San Luca, and his works are held in collections such as MAXXI. From 2011 to 2024, he was co-founder, architect, and designer of Kiasmo. With Collezione Disegnata, D’Alba continues an independent path in contemporary ceramic design aligned with Avant Crafts’ vision of collectible objects defined by intellectual depth and material awareness.
Other Voices in Contemporary Ceramics
While Vincenzo D’Alba approaches contemporary ceramics as a system rooted in drawing, structure, and conceptual research, other Italian ceramic practices embrace a more instinctive and gestural language. A parallel yet contrasting perspective can be found in the work of Anna Resmini, whose ceramics explore intuition, imperfection, and emotional form-making.
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