Sergio Fermariello

1961, Naples, Italy

Sergio Fermariello was born in Naples in 1961, where he lives and works. After studying Natural Sciences, in his early twenties he decided to devote himself entirely to art. In 1989 he held his first solo exhibition at Galleria Lucio Amelio and, in the same year, received the Saatchi & Saatchi International Prize for Young Artists.

At the heart of his work is a sign that has become immediately recognizable: the Warrior, an essential figure carrying a spear and shield, repeated until it becomes a form of writing. In 1993 Achille Bonito Oliva invited him to the 45th Venice Biennale, where he was given a solo room in the Italian Pavilion. Since then, the Warrior has continued to inhabit his paintings and three-dimensional works, like an image belonging to the past that still speaks to the present.

Sergio Fermariello

Untitled, 2022
Corten steel, 120 × 120 cm

Fermariello's Warriors have always made me think of something that existed long before us. They are figures reduced to the essentials: a body, a shield, a spear. And yet that is enough to recognize them immediately.

In this 2022 work, the sign becomes matter. The warrior is no longer simply drawn or painted, but takes physical form in Corten steel. And when these figures multiply, one beside another, I no longer see individual men, but a people moving forward. Each carries his own battle, his own story, perhaps even his own fears. But he keeps going.

That is what I like most about Fermariello's Warriors: they seem ancient, almost primitive, yet they tell us something we all understand. Because, after all, there is a little warrior in each of us..