Antonino Sciortino

Antonino Sciortino (1962-), sculptor and designer, is known for his iron works made with thin "cooked iron" wires that make the material more easily malleable with ever new expressive purposes. Sciortino uses iron to create small stylized metal figurines, or he juxtaposes many filaments to form bases and backs of seats to which the chiaroscuro effects between light and shadow give a fascinating vitality, or again he gives life to minimalist and enigmatic creations in which the thread of cooked iron is arranged according to an apparently random logic. Born in Palermo, Sciortino is self-taught: he learned to work the material at an early age alongside his brother, a blacksmith by profession, and began his business with the opening of a creative laboratory in Milan only after forty years. In the midst of him he instead dedicated himself to his other great passion, dance, working as a choreographer and dancer in numerous television broadcasts. In addition to the limited edition one-of-a-kind pieces churned out by his atelier, Sciortino has also started mass productions that have entered the catalogs of some major Italian and international furniture brands, first of all Baxter. His creations also appear in the catalogs of brands such as Serax, La Cividina and Roda.