Gabriele Pici, a craftsman born in Salento, began his career twenty years ago, when he learned to use his first chisel, thanks to the master and sculptor Renzo Buttazzo.
Although starting from a school education very far from what his passion was and is – he is in fact an electrical technician – he immediately revealed himself for his great dexterity, the taste and the naturalness of the soft and sinuous shapes that characterize his works
We at Madeinitalyfor.me have known Gabriele for several years. We felt immediately in love with his creations and wanted him with us already in the first years of our business. In addition to marketing his beautiful lamps, we have had the opportunity to bring his works around Europe with Artour-o il Must: Praga (2015), Barcellona (2016), Madeira (2017), Malta (2019), Firenze (2016) (2017) (2018) (2019) and everywhere we have found a very high popularity.
Displayed in a splendid space, the Mi Casa Es Diferente in Barcelona or in the Cr7 Hotel in Madeira, in the halls of the Italian Cultural Institute in Prague, as well as in Montedomini Archivio in Florence, his masterpieces have in fact always captured the attention and compliments of many visitors.
Today Gabriele lives in Lecce of his work, creating artistic works of great impact and often also of large dimensions to which is added a production of different lines of furnishing accessories and artistic lamps, in several sizes.
To get to know a more personal aspect of Gabriele’s character, we asked him to tell us an anecdote related to his experience as an artisan in Lecce:
"I remember with particular pleasure something that happened to me almost 20 years ago, at the very beginning of my career: after the start of my apprenticeship and after discovering that practically the whole city of Lecce was built of stone, I marveled at every step. And to every person I met or strolled with me, I emphasized the beauty of the city walls."
About a year later, during the making of the first handmade objects, especially lamps, he was able to identify a shark’s tooth inside a block of stone. Slowly and with dedication, he managed to extract it and the amazing thing is that he still keeps it!
The nature of Lecce stone, due to its origin, foresees just this: years and years of fossil sediments, from which the beauty and richness of this material derive. Thanks to its porosity and ductility, it can be worked creating unique and sinuous shapes.
Gabriele Pici, since 2000, has created a series of original and absolutely particular objects. To model the stone he uses rasps, chisels, hammers and other absolutely handcrafted tools. In fact, the use of large machinery has never been taken into consideration.
A particular feature of Gabriele’s work is that he does not make any draft of his works but follows his instinct and lets himself be guided by his own hands to work the stone. For this reason his objects are totally authentic. It takes its cue from the beautiful details of the Apulian nature, letting itself be inspired by the olive trees or the rocks sculpted by the sea and the wind.
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