Paolo Di Capua's Umana Natura at Palau Martorell

The recently restored underground spaces of Palau Martorell in Barcelona host Umana Natura, a solo exhibition by sculptor Paolo Di Capua (Rome, 1957). Curated by Mario De Candia, the show gathers about fifty works created over the last twenty years and ideally dialogues with the extensive retrospective of Antoni Clavé (1913-2005) on the upper floors. Di Capua primarily works with lime wood, favoring its delicate tones and lack of knots, and his abstract style evokes classicism, intarsia, and Donatello's stiacciato relief. His minimalist, informal plastic language seeks to express the synthesis between harmony and contrast inherent in human nature. The works, often small to medium format, feature traces of white or black acrylic and metal inserts, avoiding 19th-century monumentality. Di Capua studied under Lorenzo Guerrini and cites Pericle Fazzini, Arturo Martini, and Amedeo Modigliani as influences. The exhibition showcases the variety of his sculptural language, where volume and matter shift with light and shadow, and forms suggest urban landscapes, houses, fountains, cubist vases, leaves, or tree trunks while maintaining geometric abstraction.