Duccio Maria Gambi
Poggi Ugo

Duccio Maria Gambi’s creative journey is very personal and powerful: first of all in his studio in Paris, and today in his atelier in Florence, the city where he was born. The style he pursues is simple, with a strong impact and highly refined, made up of pure lines and hard, important materials: concrete, resin, cement, stone, metal, sheet plastic laminate and waste materials. His work is heterogeneous and takes advantage of a radical theoretical background; he has experimented with different creative processes and knows the constraints and potential, both industrial and artisanal, of the work. He expresses his creativity in  bespoke pieces for furnishing and unique projects for art and design galleries, as well as in site-specific pieces.

The kilns of Poggi Ugo have been a landmark since 1919 for the production of the famous terracotta of Impruneta, made strictly by hand with traditional techniques. Antonella and Lorenzo Andrei, the founder’s grandchildren, today at the head of this factory of excellence, actively work with designers, architecture studios, artists and sculptors to  bring craftsmanship increasingly closer to art. At the long-established Tuscan works, modelling the clay, drying, filling the kiln, firing and cooling are all delicate and complex phases that require a very high level of craftsmanship, today as in the past. An ancient, pure and natural material such as terracotta has proven to be ideal for the simple and ancestral design of Duccio Maria Gambi. The encounter with the Poggi Ugo works has given rise to a very intense and contemporary project, wholly based on the power of shapes, which relate to the environment like intense presences, and on the expressive beauty of the material.