CERAMICHE REFIN PRESENTS METAMORPHOSES

Images courtesy of Ceramiche Refin

A Project by Oliver Laric for Refin DTS 2025

Ceramiche Refin will showcase from April 4 to 13, 2025 its second chapter of DTS – Daring Art Explorations at Milano Art Week and FuoriSalone 2025, aiming to promote experimentation and innovation in contemporary art projects, following its successful debut last year.

REFIN DTS – Daring Art Explorations is a contemporary art project curated by Valentino Catricalà, featuring internationally renowned artists producing significant works and installations, celebrating boldness, contamination, and experimentation.

After the debut of DTS in 2024 with Glint by Quayola, the collaboration continues this year with Oliver Laric (1981, Innsbruck), an Austrian multimedia artist based in Berlin. His works explore the boundary between material and digital art, highlighting themes of transformation and hybridization. Aligned with Refin’s founding principles, Laric champions audacity and innovation in art that challenges traditional boundaries. He addresses contemporary issues like authorship, reproduction, and the circulation of images in the digital age, using media manipulation to reflect on the value of art and culture.

Laric encourages us to rethink what defines a “copy” or an “original,” demonstrating how acts of replication can revitalize ancient works into dynamic and relevant images for today.

The FuoriSalone edition features a hybrid of the past and future, material and digital, sculpture and video, reflected in Oliver Laric’s exclusive work, Metamorphoses. The exhibition takes place at Refin Studio in Milan, a prestigious space in Brera, and the former Sottsass Associati studio.

Presented by Coulisse | INK

The work, presented both in sculptural and digital form, emerged from the artist’s encounter with the Refin reality, as Oliver Laric explains: “Visiting Refin in May 2024, I was struck by how time was made visible. At every stage of the factory tour, the materials changed state, transforming right before our eyes. This feeling stayed with me and continued to influence my thoughts on the idea for the project. The experience connects to some of my main interests in transformation, metamorphosis, and hybridization. I am drawn to a process-oriented approach, one that shows different states of being rather than isolating an idea of a final state. And, this approach has influenced both the artwork and the way of communicating the work to our audience. In the past, I have created sculptures showing moments of transformation, but only from one phase to another. My idea for Refin was to try a new approach: instead of showing moments between two forms, generating a composition that undergoes multiple stages in succession, thus leading to an expanded complexity where each phase is part of a continuous dialogue of meanings and nuances.”

Laric’s unique characteristics and themes have captivated Refin, creating a deep connection between the company and the artist, while Refin’s innovative approach to research and product development is distinctive. 

“Laric’s art – with its deep exploration of transformation, hybridization, and the concept of originality in the digital age – captivated us right from the start. His reflections open up scenarios that go far beyond the world of art, touching on broad and cross-cutting issues that also challenge us every day in our work with ceramics,” explains Rino Bedogni, Head of Marketing & Communication at Ceramiche Refin.

“His work is not a provocation: it’s an open question. What does it mean to transform? What happens in the moments between moments? And where does the original end, where does the copy begin?” Bedogni continues. “DTS is our way of affirming that the future is built by listening. And then, daring.”

The artist is collaborating on a series of ceramic art pieces, titled Metamorphoses, which will culminate in a collection in September 2025, showcasing the technical and material contamination between the artist and Refin’s world and its values.

METAMORPHOSES – Oliver Laric for Refin DTS 2025
Refin Studio
via Melone 2, Brera, Milano
Friday, April 4 – 14:00-18:00
From April 5 to 13 – 10:00-18:00
Sunday, April 6 and 13, early closure at 16:00