The daughter of a well-known sculptor and his journalist wife, Petra Weiss grew up in Canton Ticino. She began an apprenticeship as a potter in the studio of Antoine de Vinck in Brussels at the age of eighteen.The strongest influence on her artistic development was, however, provided by the famous potter and sculptor Carlo Zauli in the Italian town of Faenza, in whose studio she worked from 1966 to 1970. She subsequently opened her own studio, where she still works today, in a building next to her father's house, in the small Ticinese village of Tremona which is also the headquarters of a colony of artists. In the same year, 1970, she held her first solo exhibition in the Gemeindegalerie in Ernmenbriicke / Lucerne.Ceramic, Ceramic

In the 1970s, Petra Weiss concentrated mainly on lamellar layers, giving the larninary flow of the interior relief of her vessels a visible form and contrasting it with the smooth exterior. A little later, she started producing quieter, simpler vessels, as well as three-dimensional sculptures composed of thin, rhythmic, mainly square ceramic leaves or slabs, vertical or horizontally layered, with titles such as "Racconto" (Narration), and "Evoluzione" (Development). At first mainly light-coloured, often whitish or graphite black, the range of her glazes expanded to include a turquoise reminiscent of the sea.Ceramic, Ceramic

In the mid-1980s, Petra Weiss started developing the forms with which she still works today: small, scrap- like lumps of clay joined together, at first in layers reminiscent of landscapes or cloud formations, later turned inwards, with smoothed outer surfaces. This reduces the heaviness of the block-like forms and even provides glimpses through and into the sculptures, as well a relief structure more strongly determined by light and shade. "Since 1984, they (the forms) have assumed the shape of weather-beaten, exploded pyramids, of cracked crystalline blocks of rock rubble, white on the smooth parts of the surface, like a light sprinkling of snow, rough and dark in the deep cracks." (Rudolf Schnyder, in: Exhib. cat. Osnabrück 1998, Europäische Keramik 1998. 350 jahre Westfälischer Friede, Kunsthalle). Stereometric figures frequently emerge with their ends or edges tapering to thin, fragile points. There is a special group of two-part, seemingly reflecting or shadow-forming sculptures, in which one form is standing, the other lying down, including some sculptures rounded one side reminiscent of wind-filled sails as their title "Vela" suggests.Ceramic, Ceramic

Colour is becoming more and more important to Petra Weiss. Dark brown tones and graphite black are still frequent. In addition, she has discovered a new delight in light, bright colours which form independent or supplementary planar forms executed in spray technique which allows fluent transitions. Thus a long, sharply contrasting pale yellow wedge, for example, gives the impression of a ray of light on a tall, dark stele.Ceramic, Ceramic