AN AWARD-WINNING MASTER ARTISAN FROM ITALY IS ELEVATING HOME SANCTUARIES TO THEIR ULTIMATE POTENTIAL, ONE MAGNIFICENT POOL AT A TIME

BY LAURA D.C. KOLNOSKI

Ravenna in northern Italy, near the Adriatic Sea, is famous for its intricate, stunningly beautiful, and historically significant mosaic tile installations, many from the 5th and 6th centuries. It is also the hometown of Danilo Bonazza, who began building his reputation as a passionate, innovative artist at an early age.

Bonazza attended art classes to hone his precocious skills, combining his love of drawing with the artistic aspects of tiling and mosaics. By age 12, he was entering adult competitions, and getting noticed. Bonazza soon realized that creating with his hands was the only true path for him. To earn a living while pursuing his art, he took construction work, focusing on tile installation, a move that would prove fortuitous. Soon his work was appearing in galleries as he continued his winning streak at competitions. Bonazza was named New Young Artist of 1996 with his painting “La pineta di Marina” (Marina’s pinewood), and the Bologna Prize for Art in 1998, with “Cieloe vertigine” (Sky and vertigoes), a mix of painting and mosaic in 3-D.

Those successes convinced Bonazza to participate in the World Tile Installation Competition in Dusseldorf, Germany, in 2001, taking first place in Quality and Innovation for handcrafting different stones in tiles, then installing them in walls and floors. He won the same competition again the following year.

“I fell in love with the art of mosaic and began experimenting with my creativity on different kinds of installations,” said Bonazza.

“Each creation is an experimentation of materials and colors. Each choice is made with extreme care. Quality becomes an artistic act in itself. Mosaics are an art form in constant evolution.”
As word of Bonazza’s mosaic magic spread, he was commissioned to install two pools in the spas of the Grand Hotel in Gstaad, Switzerland. The subsequent public acclaim and personal satisfaction he received from that project resulted in his pivotal decision to work solely with mosaics.

INVESTORS SPREAD

In Ravenna, Bonazza began collaborating with the internationally renowned Sicis Art Mosaic Factory, installing the firm’s largest showroom to date in New York City in 2006. It was there he met his future wife Mariel and decided to move to America. By 2008, he achieved his life’s dream, creating his own company, Art and Mosaics.

A multitude of commissions followed for both residential and commercial work, including supervising the entire mosaic installation at the Encore Hotel in Las Vegas. Art and Mosaics, along with Bonazza’s reputation for quality and consistency, grew in the best possible way – by word of mouth as designers and architects shared Bonazza’s breathtaking projects and enthusiastically referred him to clients.

“My passion for mosaic art, over time, blended with the allure of pool creation, from which I draw enormous inspiration,” said Bonazza. “My work comes to life, orienting itself towards a unique and unmistakable style, which evolves with ever new methods and materials that blend reality with a dreamlike vision both homeowners and commercial endeavors crave.”

In designing and executing his dazzling pools today, primarily for private clients, the artist employs his expertise in tile installation to achieve the most successful and lasting results. His sweeping knowledge of all working procedures and techniques, and surfaces upon which the mosaics will be laid, is essential to the perfection of the final product. Nationwide, from Beverly Hills to Miami, and now in New Jersey, Bonazza has garnered a growing roster of satisfied clients.

Danilo Bonazza
Art and Mosaics / 347.429.0244 / artandmosaics.com
SERVING ALL AREAS OF NEW JERSEY
10 PONDVIEW DRIVE • TINTON FALLS, NJ 07724 732.268.7145 • JILLRYANINTERIORS.COM