Willy Verginer
Aspettando Il Momento
2019
Mixed woods, acrylic
54 × 47 × 31 in
Willy Verginer was born in Bressanone (BZ) in 1957. He attended the Art Institute of Ortisei, where he studied Painting. After graduation, he worked in various wood sculpture studios in Val Gardena. In the 1980s, starting from the tradition of his valley, he tried to distance himself, by means of autonomous learning, from conventional methods. From 1984 to 1989, he taught at the Professional School of Sculpture of Selva (BZ).
In one of his first personal exhibitions, curated by Danilo Eccher at the Galleria Spatia in Bolzano, he showed abstract works, made of wood with combination of natural materials. The 90s were characterized by profitable exhibitions and the foundation of the Artistic Group Trisma, formed by Walter Moroder, Bruno Walpoth and Willy Verginer. Afterwards, ten years of research, crises and a not so creative period followed.
In 2005, he exposed at Galleria Castello in Trento: Verginer changed radically his style and showed figurative sculptures developing an original plastic language combined with an acrylic paint with shades of artificial colors. Personal exhibitions curated by Alberto Zanchetta, Luca Beatrice and Ivan Quaroni followed in Vicenza, Milan, Bergamo and Trento.In 2010, he exhibited at the Coda Museum in Apeldoorn, Holland, with other sculptors from Val Gardena; in 2012, in Antwerp, Belgium, where he had a profitable exhibition activity that is still ongoing.
He was invited at the 54th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia in 2011 to represent Trentino Alto Adige. He attended the Biennale Italia – China at the Villa Reale in Monza and the 1st Annual Collectors Contemporary Collaboration curated by Chang Tsong Zung at the Hong Kong Arts Center. In the years 2013-2014, he began a new cycle entitled Baumhaus, shown for the first time in an exhibition at the MAC – Museum of Contemporary Art in Lissone (MB) and, in the same year, at the Biennale Gherdëina with a monumental work entitled Baumhaus. The Ianchelevic Museum in La Louvier (Belgium) invited him for a solo show from March to June 2015. In the same year – a very profitable period for exhibition activities – he attended Open Art of Örebro (Sweden) and he exhibited at Nature, a group show curated by Margherita de Pilati at the Galleria Civica of Trento.Two years later, he was at Wood / Holz / Lën, a group show curated by Gabriele Lorenzoni at the Galleria Civica of Trento, it was the first exhibition of wood contemporary sculpture in Italy.
In recent years, Willy Verginer has focused his works on the environmental themes. In Detroit (Michigan, U.S.A.) in 2017, he exhibited a big installation at the Wasserman Projects. This show in Detroit can be considered the best example of the progress of his works and research about the environmental themes. In the 2019 he participated with two works in the exhibition ”Nature in art” in the MOCAK Museum of Contemporary Art in Krakow. The same year Verginer started with a new series entitled “ Rayuela” and showed it by Gallery Zemack Tel Aviv. Willy Verginer lives and works in Ortisei Italy.
Courtesy of artsy.net, verginer.com