FABIO VIALE – W.T. Mag

Born in Cuneo in 1975, he hooked his life to marble at the age of 16, when he attended art school and discovered his passion for the material. He become a sculptor who has managed to make his name on the international artistic scene with works made of marble that are so engaging as to become events.

In 2002 he carved Ahgalla, a boat sculpted out of marble able to float and carry people too, with the help of an outboard motor. It has been launched in Carrara, Turin, Rome, Milan, Venice, Saint Petersburg and in 2011 in Moscow.

His works arrived from Italy to New York and Russia. In 2010 he made Cavour, a monument to Camillo Benso Count of Cavour for the Quirinale in Rome. In the following year, Museo del Novecento in Milan displayed his most representative works in a solo show, purchasing a sculpture for its permanent collection. In 2013 he made his debut at Sperone Westwater in NY. A year later he won the Cairo prize, the most important recognition for contemporary art in Italy for having created a realistic wooden box marble made. In 2015 he began a collaboration with the poggiali Gallery in Florence, which in 2016 led to an exhibition, for the first time in history, of two sculptures of contemporary art in one of the most famous churches in the world: the Basilica of San Lorenzo in Florence.

In 2020, the city of Pietrasanta hosts his huge solo exhibition in the Italian Renaissance-style city centre. In 2021 two big solo exhibition were hosted at Le Havre (FR) during the renowned ‘Un ètè au Havre’ event and in Turin in the magnificent setting of Palazzo Reale. At the same time, at the MART in Rovereto, he participates in the collective exhibition curated by Vittorio Sgarbi on Antonio Canova entitled Canova tra innocenza e peccato. The AURUM exhibition, on the other hand, will be held in 2022 and includes more than 40 works divided into four exhibition spaces scattered throughout the historic center of the city. An exhibition that retraces all the stages of Viale’s work, from the first works with paper and tires, to the last works with gold inlays. In 2023, the MONUMENTUM exhibition was inaugurated in May at the Porta di Milano at Terminal 1 of Malpensa.

Fabio Viale_Laocoonte

– What are the biggest challenges you have met in your career?

I would like to be able to answer by talking about a work, perhaps a large, monumental one… or an exceptional transport or an installation on the top floor of a skyscraper, but in reality all this belongs to my daily work, it is my job. What I’m afraid to face always comes from outside, that is, from the system in which we all operate, whether it’s the taxes to pay or the organization of an exhibition, these are the aspects that have always created the most problems for me…unfortunately it’s always the one that doesn’t you know how to do, what you don’t have a talent for, which puts you in difficulty.