[ADAPT], 2021

[adapt], Francesca Antonini Are Contemporanea Gallery, Rome
February 18 – April 9, 2021

is Benedetto Pietromarchi’s first solo exhibition at the Francesca Antonini Arte Contemporanea gallery. The exhibition brings together a selection of seven new works in terracotta and various materials, created specifically for the gallery spaces.

Presented as a cohesive yet organic project, [adapt]. embodies the multidisciplinary approach and diverse influences that fuel Pietromarchi’s research. His work is deeply rooted in the land—both physically, as he gathers and refines the clay himself, and symbolically, as a connection to the Maremma, a place that has remained his anchor despite years spent between London, Carrara, and Berlin. Characterized by technical mastery and compositional elegance, his sculptures reflect his architectural training, which enables him to construct structures of significant scale, carefully designed to engage with the space around them.

For this exhibition, Pietromarchi has incorporated materials and “findings” from the surroundings of his Maremma studio: olive roots, clay, foliage, and remnants of ironwork from the historic Capalbio ironworks, which operated from the 15th to the late 19th century, processing iron from the island of Elba. His terracotta sculptures give form to a vibrant, hybrid bestiary: birds whose feathers, upon closer inspection, transform into leaves and plant veins, perched in nests or emerging from the gallery walls as if surveying the space.

Their livery lights up in a kaleidoscope of hues or, conversely, glows with a snowy whiteness, allowing them to exist in vastly different ecosystems — real or imagined, terrestrial or extraterrestrial.  A symbiotic relationship emerges between the birds and their habitat, in which animal forms adapt to plant forms, intertwining and merging seamlessly into one another. Pietromarchi’s work explores the interconnectedness of the mineral, animal, and plant worlds, mirroring nature’s ability to recombine elements in response to evolving contexts and survival needs.

Through [adapt]., the artist translates contemporary themes—ecological regeneration, species adaptability, plant intelligence, and the resilience of biosystems in crisis—into sculptural forms of classical balance and refinement.