A Pilgrimage to Val Gardena. This short presentation by Wowwood focuses on five Internationally Renowned Wood Artists born and working in this valley in South-Tirol, Italy. The longer biography’s can be found in the blog on Wowwood.
A short presentation by Wowwood.
Val Gardena has been a centre of wood carving since the seventeenth century. What began as a pastime for farmers during the harsh winter months gradually developed into an internationally renowned tradition of craftsmanship and art. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, religious sculptures, nativity scenes and wooden toys were exported throughout Europe and even to South America. To this day, wood artists in this valley continue to create religious imagery.
A pelgrimage for wood enthousiasts
At the same time, new forms have emerged. Contemporary artists reinterpret the tradition and produce modern, worldly work that is appreciated both locally and internationally. Many artists continue to work figuratively, selling their life-sized sculptures at international art fairs and in museums.
A pilgrimage to Val Gardena is not complete without meeting Bruno Walpoth.
One of the 5 artists is Bruno Walpoth. He honours the vulnerable human being: curled inward, withdrawn into oneself, closed off from the outside world. Adult figures lie on the ground in a foetal position. By coating his sculptures with white primer, his life-size, meticulously carved figures appear almost like shadows of themselves. These characteristics make Walpoth one of the most prominent representatives of contemporary woodcarving in Val Gardena.
Willy Verginer is one of the other internationally renowned artists.
Oil barrels recur in many of the sculptures of Willy Verginer. A child can no longer play carefree in the water because of the floating drums and debris surrounding it. A young deer stands forlorn atop an oil drum. A woodpecker pecks a hole into such a barrel. A man drowns in one.
Download the short English presentation ‘A Pilgrimage to Val Gardena’.
Jan Bom, 24 januari 2026
