Deborah Napolitano, born in Salerno in 1973, graduated from the Architecture faculty in Naples. With a curious spirit and practical sense, she began experimenting with materials and techniques typical of craftsmanship, adaptable to various forms of art and design.

In Milan, she pursued a Master’s in Industrial Design at the Domus Academy before delving into interior and retail space design in the luxury and fashion sector. Returning to Salerno marked a fundamental shift in expressing her creativity. Paper gave way to matter, shapes were molded rather than drawn, and the scale shifted from the urban to the human dimension, with visions transitioning from architecture to sculpture.

Shaping matter and adorning its surface with chromatic expressiveness became Deborah’s way of self-expression. The local territory provides the material and history to assimilate and perpetuate; ceramics – made of clay and its glazes – becomes the canvas for imprinting ideas.

After participating in various art collectives, she organized numerous events, overseeing setup, graphics, and artist and artwork selection. In March 2015, she assumed the artistic direction of “La balconata furitana,” an experimental project of contemporary sacred art museum and art gallery on the Amalfi Coast.

In June 2015, she debuted with the group “Venti d’Italia” and her project of suspended wanderings curated by Prof. Pasquale Persico, and in the collective “Bestiale” curated by Prof. Giorgio Levi. In December 2015, she founded the “Made in Salerno” Association to promote and disseminate the work of artists, artisans, and excellences of the Salerno region, as well as to enhance and continue the tradition and culture of visual arts in Salerno.

Her works draw inspiration from the rigorous simplicity of ceramic form and decoration, making her artistic research singular and unique. She has developed a personal style that, rooted in manual skill, delves into the archaic to resurface in the contemporization of the past, as demonstrated in the recent solo exhibition “Naturalis Historia” at the Ebris Foundation, curated by Giovanna Sessa.

With a group of Salerno-based artists in an American-based project, she explores the potential of kinetic sculpture. Her experience with iron and mobile sculpture reaffirms the rigor and essentiality of her forms derived from her extensive background as a designer and ceramist.