Leverone Adriano

Adriano Leverone was born in Quiliano (Savona) in 1953.
After studying at the Art Institute of Chiavari, where he had L. Landi, V. Fognani and L. Samorè as his teachers, he entered the course for Magistero Artistico in the State Institute for Ceramic Art in Faenza.
Apart from his studies on earthenware, in these years he dedicated his work to the first research on stoneware materials, fired at high temperatures.In 1973 he started exhibiting his work and for two years he attended the studio of the ceramic sculptor Carlo Zauli in Faenza.
In 1975 he returned to Liguria where he opened his own studio in Gattorna in Val Fontanabuona.
He later transferred it to Ferrada in 1980.In the meantime, he concentrated on teaching: from 1979 to 1986 he taught Applied Technology at the School for Ceramics in Albissola where later, in 1996, he became Artistic Director and from 1990 to 1994 he was professor of the Corso di Formazione Professionale Ceramica e Ardesia for architectonic ornamentation by the C.I.F. of Genoa.
From 1986 to 1989 he worked for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, collaborating as an expert on making terracotta. He advised the International Committee for the Development of Populations during a programme of help to the people of the Valle del Beles in Ethiopia.In 1992 he had a similar responsibility in Brazil with a programme for the education of technicians and the setting up of a school of ceramics.From 1983 to 1985 he took part in shows organised by V. Fagone entitled “A tempo e a fuoco”.While his first productions in the early seventies were marked by modulations, without any continuity, with an element in a quadrangular section (Continuous Line), by 1975 he started to find an interest in forms of a vegetable derivation. His expressive research finally brought him to essential forms where the reference to plant motifs became more subtle and allusive.
He has produced many public works of art: in 1979, in Moconesi (Genoa) he created a bronze monument, dedicated to Christopher Columbus and in 2002 he made the sculpture “Il Filone dell’Ardesia” made in stoneware and slate, presented by Sandra Solimano, vice director of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Villa Croce in Genoa. In 2003 in Cicagna (Genoa), he made a bronze monument to the “Slate Workers”. In 2004, still in bronze, he make the monument “Dalla Terra al Cielo” for the Comune di Genoa in the Cemetery of Pini Storti with a presentation by L. Caprile.
In Arenzano (Genoa) in 2006 he inaugurated the bronze monument in honour of the “Combattenti per la Libertà”.His main personal exhibitions can be seen in Chiavari, Odessa, Milan, Bologna, Genoa and Florence, Lexington and Morehead (USA), Savona, Castellamonte and Piacenza.He has had recognition from Faenza (1978 and 1981), Gualdo Tadino (1986 and 1991), Savona (1990), Santo Stefano di Camastra (1991), Venturina (1999), Tajimi (2002), Athens (2004)