Extra Ordinario
Un laboratorio di pittura dell’Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia

Book, Vulcano
October 2024

Excerpt from the book introduction
Daniele Capra, Nico Covre




The volume presents a critical examination of the five editions of the Extra Ordinario summer painting workshop, held between 2020 and 2024. It explores the educational and relational processes enacted within the workshop, as well as the final exhibitions of each year. The project featured students from Atelier F, an extention of the most active and long-standing Painting Course at the Venice Academy of Fine Arts. It was carried out in collaboration with established artists on the Italian art scene—many of whom were once students at the same school—alongside the institution’s faculty and the editors of this publication.


The Extra Ordinario workshop, hosted at Padiglione Antares in Venice Marghera, constitutes a unique case within Italy’s artistic education landscape. This distinction arises from the collaborative nature of the initiative, which bridges public and private entities (Venice Academy of Fine Arts and Vulcano Agency); its pedagogical approach, which fosters horizontal teaching models between faculty members (Carlo Di Raco and Martino Scavezzon chief among them) and students; its extended duration (ranging from six to twelve weeks); the large number of participants (over a hundred each year); and, not least, the outstanding artistic outcomes, which have led many professionals to recognize and appreciate what has been called the “New Venetian School” within the contemporary art scene, both in Italy and beyond.


At its core, each edition of the workshop has been dedicated to the practice of artistic creation, pursued with unwavering commitment. Objectives such as the cultivation of self-awareness, depth, and consistency in artistic language were achieved through the participants’ strong idealistic drive and an intense, focused approach to their practise. Extra Ordinario may thus be interpreted as a pedagogical, collective, and horizontal device—a veritable training ground where young students, guided by faculty and established artists, develop the necessary discipline to define themselves as artists.
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