Until 1993 Roberto Mannino worked as a graphic designer and sculptor. As a sculptor he feels attracted to spatial, gravity-denying shapes that create spaces and enclose air. The phenomenon of shrinkage and how to control it has interested him since the eighties when he would stretch canvas over various frames. As a papermaker he operates in the same manner. He stretches paper three-dimensionally and wraps objects in pulp of flax or linen that have a high degree of shrinkage. He transforms paper under the pressure of hot sand, lets paper sheets change shape under controlled circumstances in a drying cabinet, or transforms piles of damp paper on a vacuum table. To his background as a graphic designer Mannino owes his love for black and grey shades, micro-relief, blind stamps and shining, wax-saturated and with graphite polished surfaces.
Until 1993 Roberto Mannino worked as a graphic designer and sculptor. As a sculptor he feels attracted to spatial, gravity-denying shapes that create spaces and enclose air. The phenomenon of shrinkage and how to control it has interested him since the eighties when he would stretch canvas over various frames. As a papermaker he operates in the same manner. He stretches paper three-dimensionally and wraps objects in pulp of flax or linen that have a high degree of shrinkage. He transforms paper under the pressure of hot sand, lets paper sheets change shape under controlled circumstances in a drying cabinet, or transforms piles of damp paper on a vacuum table. To his background as a graphic designer Mannino owes his love for black and grey shades, micro-relief, blind stamps and shining, wax-saturated and with graphite polished surfaces.