Susanna DeSimone
Susanna DeSimone — Palermo, Sicily
Susanna DeSimone is one of Sicily's most distinctive contemporary ceramic artists, working from her family's historic studio — Fabbrica della Ceramica — in Palermo. Her work is unmistakable: vivid red, deep cobalt blue, sun yellow, and ochre on a creamy white ground, set against folk scenes of Sicilian life — fishermen, orange pickers, wheat harvesters, grape stompers, musicians, mermaids, and the kings and queens of the Sicilian puppet-theater tradition.
The family legacy: Giovanni DeSimone and Picasso
The artistic tradition was founded by Susanna's father, Giovanni DeSimone — a renowned and innovative artisan from Palermo whose work entered the permanent collections of major museums and helped define mid-20th-century Sicilian ceramics. Early in his career, Giovanni DeSimone worked with Pablo Picasso, and the two shared an innovation: the use of bright red in glazed ceramics, a color Picasso loved. Giovanni DeSimone's cubist-influenced drawing style — flattened forms, exaggerated profiles, joyful figuration — remains the visual signature of the studio today.
"I express what comes through my imagination, filtering old and new memories, comparing my experiences and my understanding." — Giovanni DeSimone, 1991
The continuation: Susanna DeSimone and Fabbrica della Ceramica
Today Susanna DeSimone carries the tradition forward at the family studio, now operating as Fabbrica della Ceramica. Each piece is hand-crafted, hand-glazed, and hand-painted in Palermo. Her limited-production work bears her signature alongside the company's new name. Susanna DeSimone's work is more colorful and contemporary than her father's while preserving the cubist line and the cast of Sicilian folk characters that have made the studio iconic.
What Susanna DeSimone makes
The Susanna DeSimone studio produces a remarkably broad range of work — far beyond dinnerware. Biordi carries:
- Plates and dinnerware — dinner plates, salad and appetizer plates, pasta and soup bowls, all painted with Sicilian folk scenes (orange picker, fisherman, grape stomper, musicians, kings and queens)
- Mugs, espresso cups, latte cups, cappuccino cups — small everyday pieces in the full range of Susanna DeSimone characters
- Wall plates and signature tiles — large-format works of art including the iconic Signature Tile series in both black-and-white and full color
- Animal cachepots — sculptural planters and serving bowls shaped as lions, horses, roosters, turtles, elephants, and mermaids; available in small and large sizes
- Statuettes and figurines — musicians (cymbal, trumpet, saxophone, tuba, drummer), Carabinieri (Italian state police), king and queen figures
- Religious art — Holy Family plaques, Madonna and Child tiles, Nativity scenes, angel plaques, religious ornaments
- Vases — from small bud vases to large Sicilian-countryside floor vases
- Recipe bowls — small condiment and serving bowls labeled with classic Sicilian recipe names (Salmoriglio, Ramolata, Sarde, Caponata, Polpo, Coniglio, Involtini)
- Kitchen and table accessories — pitchers, canisters, biscotti jars, oil bottles, garlic jars, napkin holders, utensil holders, trivets, coasters, candle holders
- Christmas ornaments — angels, Santas, and religious motifs
How to recognize Susanna DeSimone
The Susanna DeSimone style is unmistakable once you've seen it. Look for:
- Color palette — vivid red, deep cobalt blue, sun yellow, and ochre on a creamy white background
- Cubist line — flattened forms, exaggerated profiles, simplified geometric features (especially noses and eyes)
- Folk subjects — Sicilian working life (fishermen, orange pickers, wheat harvesters, grape stompers), traditional theater characters (Paladins, kings, queens, knights, princesses), and animals (lions, fish, mermaids, octopuses)
- Joyful figuration — figures in motion: dancing, working, fishing, celebrating
- Signature — Susanna DeSimone's signature and the "Fabbrica della Ceramica" mark on the back of each current-production piece (older pieces by Giovanni DeSimone bear the original studio mark)
Biordi and Susanna DeSimone
Biordi Art Imports was the first US distributor of Giovanni DeSimone's work — a relationship that began in the studio's earliest years in America and continues today with his daughter, Susanna DeSimone. Our San Francisco storefront has long been one of the primary US destinations for collectors of Sicilian ceramics, and we work directly with Susanna DeSimone and the Fabbrica della Ceramica studio for each current-production piece in our catalog. Biordi has been the San Francisco source for authentic Italian ceramics since 1946, voted Best Overall Retailer in the San Francisco Bay Guardian Best of the Bay readers' poll for five consecutive years, designated a San Francisco Legacy Business (#LBR-2020-21-029) in 2020, and recognized by the city with "Biordi Art Imports Day" on May 1, 2021.