La Stamperia

The Albicocco/Santini Art Printing House was founded in 1974 in Udine by Corrado Albicocco and Federico Santini.
Specializing in intaglio art printing, the A/S printing house has collaborated with numerous internationally renowned artists, including Giuseppe Zigaina, Giuseppe Santomaso, Emilio Vedova, Jiri Kolar, and Piero Dorazio.

In 1994, Corrado Albicocco left A/S to establish the Albicocco Art Printing House, also in Udine. During those years, a strong bond was formed between Albicocco and a new generation of artists, who brought fresh energy and vitality to the world of printmaking. The printing house welcomed artists from Milanese and Roman workshops, as well as a new wave of creators from diverse backgrounds, schools, and artistic approaches. Albicocco collaborated with artists such as Giovanni Frangi, Marco Petrus, Luca Pignatelli, Velasco, Piero Pizzi Cannella, Marco Tirelli, Bruno Ceccobelli, Nunzio, Stefano Di Stasio, Klaus Karl Mehrkens, and Matteo Massagrande. He also worked with Carla Accardi, Kengiro Azuma, Gianfranco Ferroni, Mersad Berber, Sandro Chia, Peter Halley, Irwin, Zivko Ira Marušič, Vettor Pisani, Ercole Pignatelli, Giancarlo Vitali, David Tremlett, and Albert Merz.

In 2013, the cultural significance of the Albicocco Art Printing House was recognized by the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region, which sponsored a tribute to the Udine workshop at Villa Manin. In the Esedra di Levante, over 200 engravings by 60 artists showcased the scope of the printing house’s work, which was thoroughly documented and scientifically supported by a comprehensive catalog published for the occasion.

In 2014, the Municipality of Maniago dedicated a retrospective to the printing house’s work. In the summer of 2015, the Municipality of Urbino hosted another major retrospective at the DATA exhibition space. In November 2015, the Municipality of Pordenone promoted the exhibition Impressione Astratta, dedicated to the Albicocco Art Printing House. This significant exhibition, held at the Armando Pizzinato Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art, focused on abstract art in printmaking. The following year, the same gallery in Pordenone hosted Filando i remi, an exhibition dedicated to artist books created and published by the Albicocco Art Printing House in collaboration with Electrolux Zanussi Industries.

In 2016, the printing house completed an important project with Jannis Kounellis, a master of Arte Povera, consisting of twelve carborundum engravings. These works were presented in December 2017 at the Istituto Centrale per la Grafica in Rome in collaboration with Bruno Corà and the Kounellis Archive.

In June 2019, the Municipality of Padua organized the exhibition L’immagine è necessaria at Galleria Cavour, curated by Nicola Galvan. Around 50 engravings were displayed, featuring works by renowned artists such as Jannis Kounellis, Emilio Vedova, Carla Accardi, and Giuseppe Santomaso, along with other celebrated contemporary artists. The exhibition recounted the history of the Albicocco Art Printing House, one of the most significant institutions in the field of fine art printmaking.

In 2020, La teoria delle impronte was the title of an exhibition curated by Velasco Vitali for the ArchiviVitali Association. The 18th-century spaces of the Workers’ Club in Bellano, on Lake Como, hosted contemporary masterpieces from the Albicocco Printing House. Also in 2020, as part of the Vicino/Lontano Festival, the exhibition Vocali by Giovanni Frangi was inaugurated in the spaces of Via Ermes di Colloredo, showcasing the latest work created in collaboration with the Udine-based printing house. In October of the same year, the prestigious setting of the Rosazzo Abbey (Udine) hosted Fuor di Misura, an exhibition featuring 25 large-scale intaglio prints, the result of collaborations between the printing house and some of the great Masters of our time.