Elena Salmistraro - thesignspeaking

Product designer and artist, Elena Salmistraro lives and works in Milan. Her creations are the result of an art – design mix with a special attention to nature for her a source of constant inspiration. Utmost care for details, painstaking search for shapes’ harmony and poetic style characterize her projects. One of her work’s priorities is the search for objects’ expressive language, which may fascinate people by evoking emotions.

These are the hallmarks of this young designer whose projects have been selected for some of the most important art exhibitions including: “The New Italian Design”, a traveling exhibition organized by the Triennale Design Museum of Milan, curated by Silvana Annicchiarico and Andrea Branzi, with stops in San Francisco, Santiago de Chile, Cape Town; the “The New Aesthetic Design” at 2013 Shanghai Biennale for Triennale Design Museum and at 2015 Gwangju Biennale, South Korea. In 2016, during the XXI edition of the International Exhibition of Triennale of Milan, Elena Salmistraro took part in W-Women in Italian Design, Triennale Design Museum’s ninth edition. In the same year, during the art event “Normali meraviglie La Mano ” curated by Alessandro Guerriero and Alessandra Zucchi, she painted a hand designed by the artist Mimmo Paladino, which was exhibited at the Triennale of Milan. In 2017 was appointed Ambassador of Italian Design, on the World Day dedicated to italian design – “Italian Design Day” – an initiative promoted by the Triennale di Milano in collaboration with Ministero degli Affari Esteri and Ministero dei Beni e delle Attività Culturali.

During the spent Milan Design Week 2017 we could appreciate her work under different guises. She contributed with Alessi to the project/installation “L’esercito delle spazzole” on the occasion of “White in the City” event, promoted by Oikos and curated by Giulio Cappellini. Than due to her presence at the Salone del Mobile with various creations for Bosa Ceramiche, Stone Italiana, B-Line, My Home collection and ending with “Tracing Identity”, a project curated by Evelina Bazzo for De Castelli. The project involves seven female designers and their creations able to maximize a material such as iron, often considered cold and uncommunicative. “The collection that is getting most successful – she tells us – is Primates for Bosa, I was very much concerned about why he wanted to let me know my illustrations too“. The Primates collection of vases in fine ceramic, launched at Maison&Objet, is a contemporary reinterpretation of ancient Roman pottery, famous for its typical animist and friendly character, that is expanded to include the decorative ceramic plates, illustrated with sketches and inspirations by Elena Salmistraro: a designed to remind us of the delicate relationship between man and ape. They come into our home and seduce us with their vital force.