Cinzia Ruggeri

Cinzia Ruggeri’s (Milan, IT, 1942-2019) unique creative path began in 1960, when at only 17, she had her first exhibition at Galleria del Prisma in Milan, accompanied by a text by Dino Buzzati. Ruggeri shared an affinity with the Radical Design scene in Milan in the seventies and was captivated by the transgression of limits between different disciplines such as architecture, art, fashion and design. Ruggeri collaborated with Studio Alchimia, creating one-off pieces and prototypes rather than serial productions. Alchimia’s pieces were elaborated with readily available materials and effervescent colours, transforming everyday objects into unique, idyllic designs.However, Ruggeri always kept her independence from the emerging groups and labels that arose during the post-modernist period. In 1977 she started her own collection, taking the dress into an architectural space to be inhabited. Her behavioural garments employed liquid crystals that changed colour according to body heat or LED light that would activate through an embedded button. Her fashion shows were considered theatrical events, with unique performances of light and music.

Ruggeri’s furniture and objects aimed to continue the relationship between the animated and the functional. A glove with pen tips as nails, a mirror with protruding hands, or cats with LED-illuminated eyes and moustaches lying on an armchair, take surrealism’s world of uncanny signs into a series of objects that seem to release their repressed content in a displaced, fantastic form.

“There already are enough useful objects designed to perfectly fulfil their function; what I am looking for is to communicate and interact with the objects. A glass with a pendant drop that participates by jingling when one drinks, or a shadow onto which one can rest, or a hand-shaped shower-head so that one can be caressed by water” - Cinzia Ruggeri, 2019.

Cinzia Ruggeri has had several solo exhibitions including Paper Threads - Disegni e Opere dell'Archivio Cinzia Ruggeri at Fabbrica del Vapore, Milan (2024); La Leggerezza del Peso at Emanuela Campoli, Paris (2023); Cinzia says... major retrospective at Museo MACRO, Rome (2022) which travelled to Goldsmiths CCA, London (2022); Cinzia Ruggeri...per non restare immobili, curated by Rita Selvaggio at Casa Masaccio at Casa Masaccio/ Centro per l'arte contemporanea, San Giovanni Valdarno (2020); Déconnexion at Campoli Presti, Paris (2019); Finché si scherza at Galerie Francesca Pia, Zürich (2019); Milan CIN CIN 1980-2015 at 10 Corso Como, Milan (2015).

Her work has been presented in numerous group exhibitions including Facile Ironia at MAMbo Museum, Bologna; Alchimia und das italienische Radical Design at Broöhan-Museum, Berlin; Lonely Are All Bridges, curated by Maurizio Cattelan and Marta Papini at ICA, Milan (2025); For the People of Paris at Emanuela Campoli, Paris (2022); Lives of an object, Andreas Melas and ARCH, Athens (2021); Lonely Are All Bridges, Birgit Jürgensen and Cinzia Ruggeri, curated by Maurizio Cattelan and Marta Papini at Galerie Hubert Winter, Vienna (2021); Fuori at La Quadriennale d'arte di Roma, Rome (2020); We need more than one term for these big things at University of Applied Arts, Vienna (2019); The Estate Summer at Contemporary Art Center, Riga (2019); Article 132–75 at Kunstverein Langenhagen, Langenhagen (2019); Arts & Foods, curated by Germano Celant at Triennale di Milano, Milan (2015); Postmodernism: Style and Subversion 1970–1990 at Victoria & Albert Museum, London (2011).