Alberto Maggini's Ceramic Self-Portraits at Casa Vuota

Casa Vuota, an independent gallery in Rome's Quadraro district, presents Alberto Maggini's solo exhibition 'Le origini delle buone maniere a tavola' (The Origins of Good Table Manners). The show transforms the space into a banquet of obsessions, using the artist's own body as raw material. Maggini, born in Rome in 1983 and recently returned from London, presses his face into ceramic to create death-mask-like plates, with cucumber slices over the eyelids. The colorful ceramics evoke disgust and craving, attraction and repulsion, with cannibalistic undertones. Two Arcimboldesque busts are less convincing due to their kitsch aesthetic but align with the show's exploration of taste, queer cuisine, and creative fusion. Works include a three-tier chocolate cake decorated with the artist's mouth and nose, a bowl with greedy fingers, and a roast chicken in a thong. The second room features a video where Maggini stands on an ivory shell like Botticelli's Venus, squeezing Sorrento lemons to turn his hair and beard into golden caps, blending pop culture, arcade game design, and Drag Queen aesthetics. Two Hellenistic helmet-shaped ceramics on green candle pedestals and ceramic slippers modeled from Maggini's feet in bivalve shell boxes complete the exhibition. The hybrid mix-and-match approach previews the artist's future projects.