Gehard Demetz is a mystery artist, the only thing that we know about him is that he was born in 1972, Italy, and that he currently lives in the mountains of Selva Gardena. Maybe this is the only thing that matters when you set an eye on his absolutely marvelous wooden sculptures, since you forget everything you may have in your mind. Why lie, this is not wood, this is the material of the dreams.  And dreams are the perfect place for dark surrealism to rise. What are those lost children looking for? What’s the story that they hide? They look at you and it seems that they are inviting you to torture them. Or to pay for having tortured them in the past, as if they were the habitants of a forgotten orphanage where bad things were happening.

(right) Your sweat is salty, 2005, © Gehard Demetz
wood, 172 x 38 x 35 cm
Courtesy Galleria Rubin, Milano
Photo by Egon Dejori

Their sad expressions come as a contrast to the almost porcelain aspect of the wood.  It seems that innocence was interrupted there and now it’s time for justice, for the revenge of the good. The missing wooden parts of the sculptures reveal the aching truth. That life may be at moments superficial and seemingly happy-go -lucky, but nobody can hide from the past, nobody can escape his ghosts. Gerald Demetz’s sculptures leave you defenseless. Addicted to darkness, you keep begging for more.

Gehard Demetz is represented by

Galleria Rubin, Milan // Italy

discover Demetz's talent through the pictures that follow:

right // Don't cry in public, 2007, © Gehard Demetz
wood, 170 x 108 x 34 cm
Courtesy Galleria Rubin, Milano
Photo by Egon Dejori

Everything he lied was true, 2006 © Gehard Demetz
wood, 166 x 37,5 x 50 cm
Courtesy Galleria Rubin, Milano
Photo by Egon Dejori

Gehard Demetz bares it all to Yatzer // 13 February 2010

click on the following image to read the exclusive interview @ Yatzer