WILLY VERGINER, IT

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, he tried to distance himself from the traditional art and conventional methods of his Valley, adopting a more individual approach. 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 showcased abstract works, made of wood combined with natural materials. The 90s were characterized by profitable exhibitions and the Artistic Group Trisma was founded by Walter Moroder, Bruno Walpoth and Willy Verginer. Afterwards, ten years of research, crises and a not so creative period followed. In 2005, he exhibited his artworks at Galleria Castello in Trento: Verginer had changed radically his style and crafted carved figurative sculptures that were combined with acrylic paint, so gaining an original plastic language. 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 still has a profitable exhibition activity. 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", presented 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 in 2015. In the same year – a very profitable period for exhibition activities – he attended Open Art of Örebro (Sweden) and he held an exhibition 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 contemporary wood sculpture in Italy. In recent years, Willy Verginer has focused his work on environmental themes. In Detroit (Michigan, U.S.A.) in 2017, he exhibited a big installation at the Wasserman Projects, which can be considered the best example of the progress of his art and research about environmental issues. In 2019 he participated with two artworks to the exhibition ”Nature in art” in the MOCAK Museum of Contemporary Art in Krakow. 

The same year Verginer started a new series entitled “ Rayuela” and exhibited it at the Zemack Gallery in Tel Aviv. Willy Verginer lives and works in Ortisei, Italy.

In October 2020 the show "Rayuela" was opened at Studio d'arte Raffaelli Trento, featuring the new beautiful sculptures.