Keita Miyazaki in dialogue with Andrea Della Robbia - Rocca di Gradara
LEGHE CELESTI
Keita Miyazaki in dialogo con Andrea della Robbia
Curated by Riccardo Freddo and Luca Baroni
An intense dialogue unfolds between the Renaissance terracottas of Andrea della Robbia and the post-industrial sculptures of Keita Miyazaki, where white and blue become a bridge across epochs, cultures, and artistic languages.
July 7 – September 6, 2025 | Mon–Sun 9:00 AM – 7:00 PM (special openings scheduled throughout July and September)
Rocca di Gradara, Piazza V Novembre 1, 61012 Gradara PU
In the austere yet enchanting heart of the Rocca di Gradara — where stone preserves and transmits centuries of memory — an encounter both improbable and necessary takes shape: Leghe Celesti. Open to the public from July 7 to September 6, 2025, the exhibition brings together two artistic visions separated by over 500 years: the Renaissance master Andrea della Robbia and the contemporary Japanese sculptor Keita Miyazaki.
Curated by Riccardo Freddo and Luca Baroni and presented by London’s Gallery Rosenfeld, the exhibition is conceived as a site-specific installation exploring the transformation of material and its ability to evoke spiritual meaning. In this enriching dialogue between tradition and contemporaneity, Leghe Celesti reflects on color, memory, and the evocative power of art to traverse time, matter, and the symbolic language of form.
Keita Miyazaki’s works — delicate and intricate assemblages of automotive components, steel, and felt — appear as post-industrial blossoms, almost relics of a future civilization. For this occasion, the Japanese artist reinterprets his stylistic signature through the most iconic palette of the Della Robbia workshop: pure whites and deep blues, charged with theological and symbolic significance in the 15th century. Through his language of fragmentation and recomposition, Miyazaki transforms these colors into an emotional bridge between past and present.
The title of the artistic dialogue, Leghe Celesti, carries a dual meaning: “leghe” as the physical union of metals — a nod both to Renaissance sculptural practice and modern industrial aesthetics — and as a symbolic link across eras, cultures, and visions; “celesti” evokes both the blue glaze of the Della Robbia and the spiritual tension running through both artists’ work.
Andrea della Robbia’s glazed terracottas, luminous and solemn, embody an idea of harmonious and eternal beauty. Miyazaki’s sculptures, by contrast, vibrate with tension and ambiguity: between the organic and the mechanical, destruction and rebirth, silence and sound. Yet they share a common urgency: to transform matter into a bearer of meaning.
Within the Rocca di Gradara — a place steeped in history, myth, and poetry, famously the setting of Paolo and Francesca’s tragic love in Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy — this installation becomes a crossroads of time and sensibility. Leghe Celesti does not stage a didactic comparison, but fosters mutual listening, an intimacy of languages where Renaissance ceramics meet contemporary steel, and where eternal white and blue continue to speak of beauty as a form of resistance.
“I am convinced that art is never an isolated phenomenon in time. It is always a dialogue, a living tension between present and past, between material and memory. With Leghe Celesti, I wanted to bring out this tension: on one side, the industrial and poetic energy of Keita Miyazaki; on the other, the formal and spiritual balance of Andrea della Robbia. It is not opposition, but resonance. Both operate in transformation: of material, of time, of meaning. Within the evocative setting of the Rocca, their works do not merely observe each other: they listen. In a fragmented age, this exhibition is an invitation to reconnect the threads of our visual memory, to glimpse the sacred where we least expect it, and to perceive the future where memory dwells,” declares Riccardo Freddo.
Keita Miyazaki (Tokyo, 1983) is a Japanese visual artist working between Tokyo and London, known for his hybrid sculptures that combine industrial materials with artisanal techniques. After studying at the Tokyo University of the Arts and the Royal College of Art in London, he developed a recognizable visual language, juxtaposing mechanical ruins with vegetal forms. His works have been exhibited internationally, including at the Victoria and Albert Museum, Centre Pompidou, Palais de Tokyo, and Jameel Arts Centre, and are held in prestigious collections such as the Benetton Foundation, Mori Arts Centre, and Daiwa Foundation.
Riccardo Freddo is an expert in contemporary art with a strong international background. After graduating from LUISS and studying at Stanford, he focused on art investing with a thesis supervised by Columbia University. He has worked at leading institutions such as Paddle8, Christie’s, and Sotheby’s, overseeing auctions and special projects across New York, Los Angeles, and London. In Paris, he managed a distinguished private collection and completed a master’s in Marché de l’Art at the Sorbonne. In 2023, he founded The Place of Silence, an artist residency in Umbria dedicated to reflection and dialogue with nature. Today, he serves as Institutional and Museum Liaison at Gallery Rosenfeld in London, coordinating exhibitions and relationships with museums and international institutions, combining strategic vision, artistic sensitivity, and a passion for cultural innovation.
