Gianmaria Potenza, his art and the Potenza Tamini Foundation

Gianmaria Potenza is a Venice-born and-based artist who sculptures the light and colors of Venice.

In all his works, from the smallest to the largest sculptures covering a career of over 70 years —his first Biennale was in 1952 at the age of 16– you will enjoy uneven surfaces broken into geometric elements alternating, when, suddenly, like an exclamation mark, colors and brilliant rays of light strike your attention, illuminate your vision and make you smile.

Meeting the Maestro was a great honor, he warmly welcomed me as if we had known each other for long. Together with Valeria Loddo, the art director of the Potenza Tamini Foundation, the Maestro dedicated to me time and words and introduced me to one of his earliest works as well as to the latest ones waiting to be collected by the future owner. And he talked about the future. His energy and love for life is contagious. 

The Tamini Potenza Foundation: its goals and achievements

The idea of creating a foundation finally turned into a reality in 2023. Josie Mackwitz Tamini, a passionate collector of the works by Gianmaria Potenza, is the president.

A key point about the Potenza Tamini Foundation is that it was born in Venice and, as Valeria Loddo pointed out, it is thus deeply rooted in this city promoting culture.

The Foundation activities are already quite stunning considering how young it is.

Elaborating new codes: an exhibit at Palazzo Ferro Fini

In these months you can visit an exhibition of Gianmaria Potenza’s sculptures entitled “Elaborating new codes” at Palazzo Ferro Fini along the Grand Canal, near St Mark’s square.

The current headquarters of the Consiglio regionale del Veneto display Potenza’s statues in the courtyard and in the portego facing the Grand Canal as well as upstairs in the prestigious rooms. 

In a dialogue with Antonio Canova’s bas-reliefs in plaster, interventions by Carlo Scarpa and more cuoridoro you can find the so-called “elaboratori”, created in the mid-‘90s, as well as some bronze and marble works of a later period, such as the skyscrapers or the celestial bodies, moon and sun.

Simply stunning. 

Colours of my dreams: a short film by Alessandro Miolo

During the last edition of the Biennale Film Festival a short film was presented: Colours of My Dreams, directed by Alessandro Miolo. At the presentation, the Maestro revealed Miolo had originally expected he would need a couple of days for the film and instead,  it took seven months… and it seems there is more material for a second film, especially for the scenes of the Maestro while dancing.

The film is a great introduction to this Venetian artist and his love for a city he would never leave. Potenza says Venice gave him everything. Its light, the water, its canals give him peace as the movement of the water in the lagoon. While working, Potenza revealed he is happy, for him work is like playing and a true joy. As if creating art would come out of a happy heart — something not so granted in the art world when art works often delve into tension, crisis and drama. Potenza’s sculptures create curiosity, fill up our hearts with joy and heal.

I feel I am a sculptor

A musical contest for young composers

The Potenza Tamini foundation moves towards music, too. Young composers have been invited to create musical pieces inspired by the “elaboratori” exhibited at Palazzo Ferro Fini. On December the 9th, 2025 on the occasion of the Maestro’s birthday, at the Music Conservatory in Venice, there will be a concert featuring the best piece selected by a jury of experts.

Ca’ Pesaro Museum of Modern Art in Venice: two appointments for 2026

Next year there will be two major events regarding Gianmario Potenza and his art. In particular Ca’ Pesaro, the City Museum of Modern Art in Venice will arrange on the groundfloor an exhibit of four works by Potenza in February. In the fall there will be a solo exhibition upstairs in the noble floor of this gorgeous palace of the 17th century. Finally!

Gianmaria Potenza and his art

If the Potenza Tamini Foundation aims at promoting the artistic eclectic creations by Gianmaria Potenza and at establishing a dialogue with institutions and young generations, this does not and can not exhaust the Maestro’s artistic journey, still in a truly vibrant progress.

It is hard to give an overview of Gianmario Potenza’s art, so eclectic it is. As in an opera, you can retrace some leitmotivs. 

A contagious playfulness

There is a certain playfulness in everything he did, showing a deep desire to experiment and play. And when a toy is no longer entertaining, why not creating a new one? While a young student at school, he worked with Giorgio Wenter Marini, an artist himself, a friend of Depero and De Pisis. Thanks to him, the young Potenza learnt and explored plenty of techniques: from ceramics to engraved glass, from lacquer to wrought iron, from weaving to cabinet making. A strong belief in hand crafting: well, we are in Venice, in the end…, the most hand-crafted city ever!

Total art

The idea of art in Potenza is total art. Not just sculpture you will find in his artistic journey, but also painting and music. In the paintings, the paint is squeezed over the canvas directly from the tube, creating forms of color in relief. In his works, he says “I feel the music”. Several of his works look like music scores with their own notes and codifications.

When describing how he created the “elaboratori”, truly entertained, he recently admitted he never made a sketch before the execution and described his working process as “tic toc”, placing one piece after the other, inspired by street organs. All the single pieces you see on different surfaces could be like the keys of an instrument!

Nature as inspiration

Gianmaria Potenza sculptures are inspired by nature.

Animals, plants, creatures of the land, but also of the sky. You see them and you want to touch them. It reminds me of Peggy Guggenheim when holding her first collection piece, a bronze statue by Jean Arp, when she said: “… the moment I held that statue in my hands, I wanted to own it”. Potenza’s statues are like tactile maps for blind people… or maybe he helps us see his world this way.

The red thread (and the other colors)

And then there is the color. Blue, yellow and, more evident, a red thread. His wooden works and his bronze statues offer that red magma as from a vulcano like a signature. Tearing apart the matter of which the art works are made of, Potenza paints that opening in red or breaks the monotony of the geometric objects with a higher note, maybe coming from a different musical scale which makes us smile.

Sometimes, when I look at him, wearing one of his hats and his pair of red socks, it feels to me the artist Potenza is turning himself into one of his art works, not a statue really, a dancing one, playing with himself.

by Luisella Romeo
registered tourist guide in Venice, Italy
www.seevenice.it

The studio of the artist is open for visits upon previous booking, so please do not hesitate to contact me: I will be happy to take all necessary arrangements
In the cover: Astrolabe, Bronze, lost wax casting, 1997 at the Arsenale, Tesa 105, Venice