Willy Verginer

Willy Verginer presents, spanning five rooms, a comprehensive exhibition of his sculptural work from the past ten years. With Growtesk, the sculptor designs a distorted world in which houses stand upside down, the sky solidifies into columns, pigs lurk in trees, gorillas dance on tables, and people grow roots. Enhanced by monochrome colour horizons in the wood, Verginer creates scenarios of bizarre growth, anachronistic activities, dystopian heaviness, delicate ruin, and a civilization-weary silence. Beyond the everyday, reality is reflected. A poetry of change — stirring, captivating, and moving — runs throughout the exhibition. From room to room, new thematically bundled spheres of perception are revealed. The individual sculptural works condense into visual allegories where critical observation and poetic reflection meet.

Willy Verginer *1957 lives and works in Ortisei in Val Gardena. After studying painting at the Art Institute in Ortisei, he gained his first experience working in wood sculpture workshops. In the 1980s, he began to move away from traditional techniques and embarked on his own artistic path. From 2005 onwards, he developed his unmistakable formal language, which combines wood sculpture with pure, flat colour applications and addresses social and ecological themes. His works are characterized by a dialogue full of tension between artisanal precision and a strong, often critical, narrative content.
He participated in the 54th Venice Biennale (2011) and exhibits internationally in numerous renowned museums and collections.

Curated by Lisa Trockner for Südtiroler Künstlerbund

Foto: Leonhard Angerer for the Südtiroler Künstlerbund