The exhibition by artist and RUFA professor Davide Dormino and Francesco Petrone opens: “Life, Death, Miracles”. In collaboration with Palazzo della Penna – Center for Contemporary Arts and Indigo Art Gallery, curated by Chiara Guidoni.
Palazzo della Penna – Via Prospero Podiani 11. Open to the public until Sunday, April 13, 2025.
The concept of a miracle, in its secular and human sense, is framed as a tangible sign of transformation and change. An extraordinary event that challenges the logic of reason and manifests itself as evidence: something that changes and leaves a trace. This concept translates into the ability of certain individuals to imprint a change, whether big or small, that transcends the personal sphere and impacts anyone who witnesses it. In the flow of life and death, what remains are the small miracles of clarity, will, purity, and effort.
If sculpture is the art form that most closely resembles life for its occupation of space, weight, and volume, Dormino and Petrone choose it as the privileged language of their poetics. Their research develops within the figurative tradition but pushes beyond the tangible plane to evoke profound and symbolic meanings. Their sculptures rise and bend, stretching upward and downward with the same intensity, tracing a visual and conceptual path that recalls human existence and its constant tension between aspiration and rooting.
In the artists’ works, the trace of their hands remains, rejecting the distance of perfection and making the creative act itself visible. Every trace is the testimony of a gesture that once existed, part of a living and pulsating organism. The sculptures thus become the negative of their bodies, the space left free to welcome the other, in an open dialogue between matter and observer. With a critical and conscious approach, Dormino and Petrone tell the present through sculpture, exploring the dynamics of being and appearing.
The exhibition “Life, Death, Miracles” brings together a wide range of materials and meanings, giving life to a collective story that moves between the concrete and the ethereal. The works on display are characters of an epic without a hero, testimonies of an existence that leaves behind tangible signs and memories to be passed on. In this sense, the miracle is what remains: an artistic and spiritual legacy offered to the viewer as a gift and a reflection.
The artists
Davide Dormino (Udine, 1973) lives and works in Rome. Since 2003, he has been teaching Drawing, Sculpture, and Installation at RUFA. He creates monumental sculptures in marble, bronze, and iron, addressing universal themes. Among his most famous works are: Breath (2011), permanently installed at the United Nations in New York, and Anything to Say? (2015), a traveling sculpture dedicated to courage and freedom of expression, exhibited in 26 European capitals and awarded the Prix Èthique in 2016 by the AntiCor organization.
Francesco Petrone (Foggia, 1978) lives and works in Rome. He graduated with honors from the Academy of Fine Arts of Foggia and has worked as a set designer for theater and cinema. He is a faculty member at the Liceo Artistico Argan in Rome. His artistic research explores the contemporary context through sculpture, not as an end but as a tool for investigation. He uses industrial materials such as reinforced concrete and iron, juxtaposing them with natural elements such as wood, bread, ice, and moss, in a continuous reflection on symbol and time. In 2024, he was selected for the PAC (Contemporary Art Plan) with a project in collaboration with the Piccolo Museo del Diario of Pieve Santo Stefano (AR).
