Carpenters Workshop Gallery presents Caos Calmo, an exhibition showcasing new functional works by Italian designer and artist Antonio Marras. The exhibition highlights Marras’ increasingly experimental approach to material use and conceptual expression.

Best known as a fashion designer, Marras expands his practice in this exhibition through paintings, drawings, and sculptures that explore themes of identity, memory, and the complexity of human relationships. His work is deeply rooted in the use of found objects, each carrying its own history and identity. As a pioneer in upcycling, the Sardinia-born artist applies principles of reuse and regeneration across his practice, transforming discarded materials into new artistic forms.

In the Cucito series, fragments of broken vases are reassembled and stitched together with metal wire. This process creates an embroidered visual effect while also evoking surgical and medical associations, reflecting Marras’ instinctive approach to making.

The La Gassa D’amante series begins with flower-shaped decorative forms, which are then manipulated and distorted by hand. Through this intuitive process, the works evolve into organic sculptures resembling intricate knots.

A series of sculptural mirrors titled Conosci te stesso incorporates ceramic elements applied directly onto glass surfaces. When viewers look into the mirrors, they encounter both their reflection and the physical traces of the artist’s intervention, emphasizing material presence and imperfection.

Marras’ portrait works address themes of absence, erasure, and otherness, often obscuring the faces of his subjects. These works are created using ink, watercolor, and coffee on various types of paper, including Japanese rice paper, thick cardboard, and recycled book pages. Each piece is framed in reclaimed wooden structures, offering a renewed perspective on familiar materials.

For Marras, art serves as a way to restore order within chaos. His practice transforms everyday objects through emotional and conceptual reinterpretation, giving new life to discarded materials.

Ultimately, Caos Calmo celebrates an artist who continues to push the boundaries of material experimentation, merging emotional depth with functional and sculptural form.

all images © the gallery and the artist(s)