ADOLF VALLAZZA

Adolf Vallazza was born in 1924 in Ortisei, son of an iron sculptor and grandson of the painter Josef Moroder Lusenberg. After his studies, between 1947 and 1957, he opened his sculptor’s studio in Ortisei in Val Gardena. 

In the 1960s, he began to set up his first personal exhibitions in Italy and abroad. In 1968, some of important Milanese art critics, such as Garibaldo Marussi, Luciano Budigna and Giorgio Mascherpa, began attending his artist studio. In the 1970s, he started a collaboration began with the German architect Neckenik of Neuwied, who commissioned him with various monumental works for churches and public places. In 1974 he published his first monograph with texts by the Venetian art critic Giuseppe Marchiori and photos by photographer Gianni Berengo Gardin.The following year he exhibited for the first time in Milan at the Gianferrari gallery. Then, he also exhibited at the Davico gallery in Turin, at the San Fedele gallery in Milan, at the Ca ‘Pesaro Museum in Venice, at Palazzo dei Diamanti in Ferrara, at the Goethe gallery in Bolzano, at Castell’Ivano in Trentino. In the ’80s, he was present with his works at the International Bronzetto Biennial in Padua and at the Palladian Villa Contarini in Piazzola sul Brenta (PD). In the ‘90s, he exhibited at the Gipsoteca del Canova in Possagno, at the Gallery Bakeries in Bologna, in the Curch of S. Lorenzo in Aosta and in Thonon-les-Bains (CH) at the Maison des Arts. In 1998 he was present at Artissima at the Lingotto in Turin with the Carlina gallery and at Palazzo Medici Riccardi in Florence, with “Illuminations”. In 2003 a large solo show was set up in the church of S. Maria della Neve in Pisogne. The title of the exhibition was “Fratello legno” Other historic buildings, between 2007 and 2009, the Civic Gallery Palazzo dei Panni in Arco (TN) and the Civic Gallery of Trento, saw him participate with large solo exhibitions. In 2010, he was invited to the Gam, National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art in Turin, by Danilo Eccher, as part of the exhibition entitled “Keep your seat – stai al tuo posto”, and a personal exhibition was set up in the suggestive cloister of the Benedictine Muri-Gries abbey in Bolzano. In 2011, Vittorio Sgarbi wanted him in the Italian Pavilion at Palazzo Trentini in Trento in 2011 in the group exhibition sponsored by the Venice Biennale. Since 2016 its totems, fantastic characters, menhirs and mythical thrones have been exhibited in the new showroom in Ortisei, now a destination for admirers, critics and curators from all over the world.