Franca Maranò
b. 1920, Italy
d. 2015
Franca Maranò, pioneer of the feminist avant-garde in Puglia in the late twentieth century, left a unique body of works that includes ceramics, painting and textiles.
Nonconformist, always experimenting with new techniques and new languages, her artistic story, in the period of maturity and maximum success, is strictly connected to the twenty-year activity of the Centrosei Gallery. Founded in 1970 by the will of six artists (Umberto Baldassarre, Mimmo Conenna, Sergio Da Molin, Franca Maranò, Michele Depalma, Vitantonio Russo), the Centrosei, initially established as a Cultural Association, has played a key role in supporting and disseminating the latest avant-garde trends in the visual arts in southern Italy, with a particular focus on emerging artists from Puglia. At the time of Centrosei's foundation, Franca Maranò already had behind her a curriculum full of pictorial and sculptural experience. Despite numerous commissions from public institutions in Italy, her work as a ceramist, made up of vigorous polychrome panels characterised by a particular constructiveness of the sign, has yet to be discovered. Her work has been exhibited in major exhibitions in Italy and abroad, including those at WIAC - Women's International Art Club, London (1965); MIC International Ceramics Museum, Faenza; Expo Arte, Bari (1976, 1977, 1989); K18- Stoffwechsel, Kassel (1981) and several editions of Art Basel in Basel (1981 to 1985) with Centrosei.
Visit the artist's website at francamarano.com