ARON DEMETZ
(b. 1972, Val Gardena, Italy)

Aron Demetz has achieved international prominence with exhibitions at the Venice Biennale in 2009, PAC in Milan, MACRO in Rome and the Arp Museum in Rolandseck, Germany. 

The process of working with wood is the foundation of Demetz's oeuvre and aesthetic. Using an ancient woodcarving technique that originated in the 17th century in South Tyrol, Demetz explores the possibilities and limitations of wood as a material and celebrates its textures and ability for transformation by deploying a range of innovative techniques, including controlled burning, lacerating the wood or applying layers of natural resin. Indeed, his sculptures evoke themes of injury and healing; of metamorphosis.

“For me, the act of burning is so important; for what remains is Truth, clear and unmistakably raw. It’s a way of not only being clear and unequivocal, but a means by which one reverts back to zero.”   Aron Demetz

The stark contrast between the smoothly carved figures and the highly textured distressed wood surfaces; the pale limewood and charred wood cast in bronze, serves as a visual metaphor for this ambivalent relationship between humanity and nature - our coexistence with the natural world and our alienation from it. Through Demetz’ craftsmanship his figures and the material from which they are hewn become an inseparable whole.

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2019

Body and Soul, curated by Keith Watson, Carnary Wharf, London, UK
Aron Demetz, curated by Domenico Papa, Museo Lavazza, Torino, Italy
ArtSiteFest, curated by Domenico Papa, Pallazzina di caccia di Stupinigi, Torino, Italy
Costume Vii / Living Costumes, curated by Dan Breaz, Muzeul de Arta, Cluj Napoca, Romania
Parenteles - Verwandschaften, a cura di/curated by Manuel Solcá, Galerie Loewen, Chur, Switzerland
Dissonanze. Da Marino Marini ad Aron Demetz, 1959 - 2019, curated by Alessandra Belluomini Pucci, Galleria Barbara Paci, Pietrasanta, Italy
Intermezzo, Galleria Doris Ghetta, Ortisei, Italy
Tree Time, curated by Daniela Berta and Andrea Lerda, Museo della Montagna, Torino, Italy
Odunpazari Modern Museum, OMM Foundation, Eskişehir, Turkey

2018
Alessandro Papetti and Aron Demetz, Everard Read London, London, UK
Rgenerazioni, Galleria Anna Marra, Rome, Italy
Methamorphosis, Gallery Mark Peet Visser, Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands
Autarchia, Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli, Italy
Choice, Gallery Dukan, Leipzig, Germany
Aron Demetz, Gallery Sun, Center for the Arts, College of Social Science, and Koo Chen-Fu Memorial Library, National University of Taiwan

2017
Memoridermata, Galleria Doris Ghetta, Ortisei, Italy

2016
L’Eco della cenere, Vestibulo de Museo de Arte e Historia de Guanajuato, Leon, Mexico
Museo Rivara, Rivara, Italy
Red Desert, the place where activism becomes attitude, Gallery Artveras, Geneva, Switzerland
La Torre di Babele, Ex Officine Lucchesi, Prato, Italy
Il peso di un pensiero, la forza di un’opera, Emma, Certosa di San Giacomo, Capri, Italy
AUTARK, with Robert Pan, Galleria Doris Ghetta, Italy
Asian Museum of Modern Art, Taichung, Taiwan
Malström, Oxholm Gallery, Kopenhagen, Denmark

2015
AraCor l l eco della cenere, Terreno Baldio Arte Mexico City, Mexico
Memoridermata, Art Center Hugo Voeten, Herentals, Belgium

2014
I AM, Arp Museum, Rolandseck, Germany

2011
Keimzeit, Barbara Paci Galleria d’Arte, Pietrasanta, Italy

2012
Aron Demetz: Il Radicante, MACRO Mattatoio Pelanda, Rome, Italy

2011
La Natura Umana, Galerie Cast Your Art, Wien, Austria
Gallery Goethe, Bolzano, Italy
Solide Fragilità, Villa Bottini, Lucca, Italy

2010
Hydriditat, Galleria Artdepot, Innsbruck, Austria

2008
Aron Demetz, PAC Milan, Italy

2004
Aron Demetz, ex Chiesa di San Filippo Neri, Rome, Italy

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2019
SUMMER, Everard Read, London, UK
 
2017
Sculptura, Galleria Doris Ghetta, Ortisei, Italy
Zwischen Himmel und Erde, Galleria Doris Ghetta Temporary, Munich, Germany

2015
42K – Robert Bosisio, Arnold Holzknecht, Walter Moroder, Peter Senoner, Galleria Doris Ghetta, Ortisei. Italy
SELF: Portraits of Artists in Their Absence, National Academy Museum, New York City, USA

2014
Beyond Sculpture, Galleria Doris Ghetta, Ortisei, Italy

2013
The Tainted, Gazelli Art House, London, UK
Double Je, Galerie Frank Pages, Crans Montana, France
Humans, Junsthaus Klagenfurt, Austria, and Prismagalerie, Bolzano, Italy
Murano-Merano, Kunst Meran

2012
Holz, Kunstgebäude Schlosshof Bodenburg, Germany
1.Biennale Italia-Cina, Ivan Quaroni, Wang Chunchen, Reggia di Monza, Italy
Advanced Minorities, Innsbruck, Austria
Aktuelle Positionen Italienischer Kunst. Premio Agenore Fabbri, CIAC Castello Colonna di Genazzano Panorama 4. Neue, Forte di Fortezza, Italy
Open Lab, Piazza del Duomo, Pietrasanta, Italy
Italians Do IT Better, Gazelli Art House, Pret A Diner, London, UK
Aktuelle Positionen Italenischer Kunst, Premio Agenore Fabbi, City Gallery, Kiel, Germany and Rome, Italy
23D2D Tridelmansion Today, Chiostro, Italy

2011
Progetto Scultura 2011, Castel Sismondo, Rimini, Italy
Bildhaurel in Tirol, Suditirol und Trentino in de letzten 50 Jahren,
Franzenfeste Fortezza (Italy)
Lo Strato Dell’Arte, Padiglione Regione Trentino, Alto Adige, 54th Venice Biennale, Italy

2010
Tridensions Today, Foundazione la Versigliana, Petrasanta, Italy
Quali cose Siamo, III Triennale Design Museum, Italy

2009
Beauty Farm, Fondazione Durini, Milan, Italy
Anima dell Acqua, Ca’d’oro, Venice, Italy
Italian Pavillion, 53rd Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy

2007
Les Fleurs du mal, Arcos Museo di Arte Contemporanea, Benevento, Italy
Nuovi Pittori della realtà, Museo Michetti, Francavilla al Mare

2006
Ririptique, manifestation d’art contemporain, Angers, France
Arte-Tempio/Kunst im Sakralraum, Palazzo Vescovile, Bressanone, Italy

2005
L’inquietudine del volto, da Lotto a Freud, da Tiziano a De Chirico, Italiana, Lodi, Italy
Mostra per il Promontorio di Portofino, Portofino, Italy
Art Fair Tokyo, Italian Factory, Japan

2004
Italian Factory, Sabbioneta, Italy
Uberblick 2004, Künstlersonderbund in Germany, Berlin, Germany
Art Fair, Koln, Germany
La Ricerca sull’Identità. Da Tiziano a De Chirico, Castel Sant’Angelo, Italy

2002
Museo Tattile Omero, Ancona, Italy
Premio giovani 2002 – Scultura, Accademia Nazionale di San Luca, Roma, Italy

2000
Aron Demetz, Walter Moroder, Franz Canins, San Martin, Italy

LATEST PUBLICATIONS

Catalogue of the exhibition "Rumors", Ex arsenale borgo dora, Torino, Grafiche Cesina
Catalogue of the exhibition "Art contemporain italien", Curated by Luca Beatrice, Marlborough
Catalogue of the exhibition "Fare mondi, making worlds: 53. Esposizione Internazionale d’Arte", curated by Daniel Birnbaum,
Marsilio Editori, isbn 978-88-317-9803
Catalogue of the exhibition "Padiglione Italia, Collaudi", a cura di Luca Beatrice e Beatrice Buscaroli, Silvana Editore, isbn 9788836613885
Catalogue of the exhibition “Anima dell´acqua”, curated by Elena Fontanella, arti grafiche ambrosiane
Catalogue of the exhibition "Che cos’è la scultura moderna? (reprint)", curated by Luca Beatrice, Stampa Bandecchi & Vivaldi, Pondera
Catalogue of the exhibition "900 scultura", curated by Giuseppe Barbieri, printed for Terra ferma by Grafiche antiga (tv) - isbn- 978-88-6322-074-2
Catalogue of the exhibition "Beauty farm", curated by Argano Brigante, Grafiche Cesina, Calendasco
Catalogue of the exhibition "Parallel events to Manifesta 7", curated by Sabine Gamper and Angelika Burtscher, for Provincia autonoma di Bolzano, dipdruck Brunico
Catalogue of the exhibition “Quali cose siamo, III triennale design museum”, a cura di Alessandro Mendini, Electa Mondadori, Milan, isbn 978-88-370-7673-3
Catalogue of the exhibition “Ritratti italiani”, a cura di Vittorio Sgarbi, Christian Maretti editore, isbn 978-88-89965-95-5
Catalogue of the exhibition “Da che arte stai? una storia revisionata dell´arte italiana“, curated by Luca Beatrice, Rizzoli, isbn 9788817037839
Catalogue of the exhibition, “VII Biennale d´arte di Postumia giovani 2010/2011” curated by Beatrice Buscaroli, Publi Paolini Mantova
Catalogue of the exhibition “Tridimensions today, indagine sull’arte plastica fra creazione e trasmissione del sapere”, curated by Alessandro Romanini, Stampa Menegazzo Luca
Catalogue of the exhibition “Doppelgänger, images of the human being” by Robert Klanten, published by Gestalten, Berlin, isbn 978-3-89955-332-1
Catalogue of the exhibition “Premio Maretti Valerio Riva Memorial 3a edizione”, curated by Raffaele Gavarro, Maretti editore, Rsm, isbn 978-88-89477-16-8
Monography ,“Aron Demetz“, curated by Danilo Eccher, Vanilla Edizioni, Savona, isbn 978-88-6057-117-5
Monography “Solide Fragilità” curated by Luca Beatrice and Alessandro Romanini, Silvana editoriale, Milan, isbn 978-88-3662-1538
Catalogue of the exhibition “Progetto scultura 2011” by Beatrice Buscaroli, silvana editoriale, Milan, 978-88-3662-1262
Catalogue of the exhibition “Ladinia”, by Herlinde Menardi, Tappeiner Verlag, Bolzano, isbn 978-88-7073-598-7
Catalogue of the exhibition “Figura”, curated by Peter Weiermair und Carl Kraus, Athesia Verlag Bolzano, isbn 978-88-8266-799-3
Catalogue of the exhibition "Lo Stato dell´Arte Regioni d´Italia", curated by Vittorio Sgarbi, Padiglione Italia 54. Esposizione Internazionale d’Arte della Biennale di Venezia Iniziativa per il 150. Anniversario dell’Unità d’Italia, Skira Editore, Isbn 978-88-572-1374-3
Catalogue of the exhibition “Premio Fondazione WAF”, Aktuelle Positionen Italienischer Kunst, curated by Volker W. Feierabend, Silvia Höller, Norbert Nobis, Peter Weiermair, Klaus Wolbert, Verlag Allerheiligenpresse, Innsbruck, Isbn 978-3-9503368-0-1
Catalogue of the exhibition "Biennale Italia - Cina, naturalmente", curated by Mian Bu, Ivan Quaroni, Wang Chunchen, Maretti Editore, Isbn 978-88.89477-94-6
Catalogue of the exhibition “Murano – Merano” curated by Valerio Dehò, Tappeiner Verlag, isbn 9-788870-737530
Catalogue of the exhibition “Praestigium Italia 1, contemporary artists from Italy“, curated by Luca Beatrice, published by Fabrica , isbn. 978-88-98764-35-8
Catalogue of the exhibition “A new tradition”, curated by Chris Towsend, Gazelli art house, London 2015, isbn: 0-9546999-7-1