Biography

Diego Santamaria draws on hard and impenetrable materials — the legacy of his homeland's industrial past in the Savona region — to disturb and invite exploration of life's emotional states and shadows.

Each work oscillates between rawness and tenderness, becoming at times tumult, at times vigour. Emotion is paramount: technique submits to intention, and the dialogue between work and context offers glimpses of muted bitterness, even as it aspires to balance and growth.

Cold materials such as iron and steel are cocoons that rediscover themselves as warm hives, open to the full emotional panorama.