About

Anna Lisa Riva

Born in Bergamo, she graduated in Painting from the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Milan, where she went on to specialise in Communication and Organisation of Contemporary Art. She has been the protagonist of many exhibitions.

Alongside her work as a tattoo artist, for some years now she has also been making ceramic objects.

Painting · Brera Academy · Milan

«My research is perhaps more about searching for a form, a harmony, a dialogue between me and the material I shape.»
Anna Lisa Riva

Poetics

Critical essay by Francesca Alfano Miglietti

Vases, objects and vessels, like precious fragments of a poetic and visionary view of everyday life: Anna Lisa Riva creates unconventional objects in a pared-back, geometric style, marked by their sculptural construction and dynamic lines, whether schematic or rounded. Objects and forms tied concretely to daily life, objects that bring beauty to functional things because they carry within them the poetics of a time and of a way of feeling, seeing and touching.

Shaping clay was perhaps humankind’s first manual activity, and perhaps the first moment in which it became ‘necessary’, through objects made to hold and preserve liquids and food, to give those very objects grace and beauty. The decorative side of an object has always carried a powerful meaning, as important as its function. Anna Lisa Riva, a tireless experimenter with materials and techniques, has built a singular dialogue with ceramics since her very first pieces: for her, working with clay is a challenge, and she puts every object through ever-new metamorphoses, almost following a secret dialogue between herself and the material. The forms and themes of many of her creations echo a poetic, narrative sensibility that comes straight from her installation work: thorns, hearts, cubes, cylinders… setting up a dialogue dense with references and quotations. A journey backwards, from imagination towards reality.

«Objects that become vessels of poetry and thought.»

What fascinates her is the vulnerability of this material: every object by Anna Lisa Riva is the outcome of reflection and poetic preparation, a dialogue with the material and its metamorphoses, and so she creates objects that become vessels of poetry and thought, the result of a deferred time, objects bound to waiting and surprise. Drawn to the meeting of the elements, the fire that turns earth into an object, Riva brings about these transformations both by manipulating form and through colour. Colour, in fact, plays a central role: bright glazes, monochromes or chromatic contrasts for surfaces that reflect the light and converse with the surrounding space. Riva’s ceramics stand out for their gestural energy: overflows, scratches, words, lines and openings that bring the surface to life with strength and poetry. For Riva, ceramics is a fundamental laboratory in shaping a creative process as rigorous as it is poetic.

— Francesca Alfano Miglietti, 2026

The studio

Bringing a world into the world

This project grew out of a need: the need to make, to create, to bring “a world into the world”.

Every vase and every object is a one-of-a-kind piece, and as such hard to place among mass-produced or industrial goods.

My way of working is a process with a more artistic and experimental nature, so I am not concerned with imperfections in the shape or the glaze, with distortions, flaws, or simply with whether the vase holds water well. These are not things I look for, or always try to achieve.

My research is perhaps more about searching for a form, a harmony, a dialogue between me and the material I shape, which is changeable and fragile by nature, which changes over time, which sometimes never takes shape, which I often do not know, but which I seek out every day.

My sources of inspiration are endless; this world has ancient, deep roots. It has handed down history and knowledge, carrying with it cultures, religions, eras and myths from every corner of the earth. Many artists have measured themselves against this element, distancing themselves from purely decorative ceramics, from Fontana, Ontani and Melotti to Ai Weiwei: clay used as a medium for artistic, sculptural and installation objects and concepts, rather than as a mere craft or market-stall product.

Materials and firing

Red clayThe main material
White clayThe main material
Semi-refractory claysSometimes, with or without grog
StonewareVery occasionally, fired below 1100 °C

One-of-a-kind, imperfect by choice

Every piece is shaped and glazed by hand, one at a time: no two objects are the same. Small irregularities in form, glaze overflows and variations in colour are part of the work, not defects.

Not every vase is meant to hold water. If you are looking for a vase for fresh flowers, write to me firstand I will tell you which pieces are suitable.

To clean them, a soft cloth, dry or slightly damp, is all you need. The ceramics are not dishwasher, microwave or oven safe.

The collections