Compared with artists for whom ceramics are a mother tongue, Guido De Zan is fortunate in having become a ceramist rather than being born one. He has not founded his identity on the rethorical apparatus whereby every trait of research must centre on technique. Instead, he has simply added the extraordinary, virtually unlimited potential of technique, together with the thinking generated by material, to an intense intellectual appraisal which was previously applied to a much broader range of interests, rooted in quite different schools of thought. Flaminio Gualdoni Guido De Zan was born in Milan in 1947. In 1974, after eight years working in the field of caring for young people with learning difficulties, he took a degree in Sociology at Trento University. In 1975 he began working with ceramics, using stoneware and porcelain to make both sculptures and useful objects. In 1978 he openes a workshop in Milan, il Coccio, sited close to the church of San lorenzo. he has worked there for three decades, with generations of assistants and pupils from all over the world. He has recently begun working in drypoint and etching as well as ceramics. He continues to live and work in Milan.