Born and raised in le Marche, artist Elisabetta Carli moved to Venice to pursue a career in restoration after receiving her degree from the Academy of Fine Arts. After a career pivot, Carli spent a decade as a visual designer in the fashion industry: her dual professional paths allowed her to synthesize seemingly distant artistic fields into a personal and poetic aesthetic. Her collections of hearts are deftly handcrafted using mineral clay, merging traditional references of devotional Ex-Voto sacred hearts with the more exotic “sagrados corazones” typical of Mexican culture.