Giuseppe Penone

Giuseppe Penone is an Italian sculptor and a leading figure of Arte Povera. His practice explores the connection between humanity and nature through wood, stone, bronze and other organic materials. Best known for his sculptures of trees, the artist reveals the processes of growth, touch and transformation that connect the human body with the natural world.

Born in 1947 in Garessio, Piedmont, Penone studied at the Accademia Albertina di Belle Arti in Turin. In 1968, he began working in the forests of his native region, developing a sculptural language grounded in direct engagement with the landscape. His early series Alpi Marittime (1968) documented actions in which he intervened in the growth of trees, exploring the relationship between human gestures and natural processes. He held his first solo exhibitions in Turin in 1969 and soon became associated with Arte Povera, the Italian movement that emerged during the late 1960s to challenge conventional artistic materials and methods

Beginning in 1969, his Alberi (Trees) sculptures involved carving away wooden beams to reveal the trunk and branches concealed within, tracing the tree’s earlier growth. In Treccia (1977–1989), he introduced plastic and copper into a growing wisteria, allowing the plant’s natural development to absorb his intervention. The work realised £266,500 at Christie’s London in 2014. These pieces challenge the relationship between nature and artistic creation, making the passage of time itself a sculptural medium. Penone also incorporates traces of the body, including skin impressions, fingerprints and breath, across sculpture, drawing, photography and installation.

The artist has exhibited internationally at major institutions, including the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Château de Versailles. He represented Italy at the Venice Biennale in 2007 and received the Praemium Imperiale for sculpture in 2014. In 2022, he was elected a foreign associate member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Continuing to live and work in Turin, Penone has developed a distinctive body of work in which sculpture becomes an exploration of the shared rhythms, structures and transformations of all living things.