MARCOROSSI artecontemporanea is proud to present the first gallery show of the Italian collective WA 22, in Milan and Verona at the same time.

WA is a Japanese word, Wa ( 和 ), meaning "harmony, peace". WA 22 is the name of this multi-ethnic collective that works in Liguria, sharing the same ideals and responsiveness to issues, with different areas of technical expertise and a conscientious poetic gesture that leads to a highly expressive form of figurative sculpture.

Heads, busts and figures ― modelled out of different materials, such as cement, mortar, ash, iron and alabaster plaster –appear wounded, chipped, marked, stained; as if altered by the passage of time, by its natural erosion.

The process of their production, different every time, and the concept of the impermanence of form, gives a unique touch to every one of the twenty works of different sizes appearing in the collective’s first solo show, divided between two galleries, with a catalogue including a critical introduction by Flavio Arensi.

WA 22’s work hinges around the human being, in a profound, visceral representation of its continually changing nature, just as the body changes with time and is marked by what happens to it.

The two exhibitions propose a long-distance dialogue that puts the figure in the centre of the space, as generation and regeneration of the person, with a special focus on the existential dynamics that transform and model faces, bodies and, especially, souls.

In their evocative first complete monographic exhibition, the artists of WA 22 offer a meditation on contemporary sculpture as the synthesis of a tradition that looks to contemporary life, to our own times, asking or perhaps demanding to go beyond the most obvious aspects and immerse the eye in the deep folds of existence.