2024 - Galleria Gagliardi, San Gimignano
Galleria Gagliardi is pleased to announce that on Saturday, 11th May 2024, will be inaugurated the solo exhibition by Leo Ferdinando Demetz "Non c'era una volta..." ("Once upon a time, there wasn't...") at its space in San Gimignano (SI), which will end on Sunday, 2nd June.
The exhibition is curated by Stefano Gagliardi and the critical text written by Isabella Del Guerra.
Demetz, a very sensitive and technically knowledgeable master carver, creates his sculptures by carving the soft, light-pink wood of the lime tree. A wood with no knots and no veins, which allows the crafting of smooth, natural-coloured sculptures that are then partly painted with light acrylic glazes and enriched with precious and meticulous details.
They are youngsters, teenagers with gentle faces that seem to come out of the wall almost as if to meet you. If we look at them carefully, we notice their proud and watchful gaze, always direct but veiled by a slight melancholy or accompanied by a hint of a smile.
At first glance, it would be easy to think we were entering the world of fairy tales, guided by Ferdinando, to meet the various fairy tale characters. An enchanted and fantastic world that accompanied us throughout our childhood and still reminds us of that time of our lives.
“Once upon a time, there was …” is the classic introduction to stories, to that magical, unreal world we all know
It's not like that. In Demetz's world there are no princes or princesses, no children who get lost and then rescued, and for the Artist, childhood isn't that golden garden where everything is love and joy: after all, today, that “once upon a time, there was...” turns into “once upon a time, there wasn't...”.
(...)
Taken from "Non c'era una volta..." by Isabella Del Guerra