Massimiliano Pelletti: Metamorfosi

Bowman Sculpture Gallery in Mayfair is delighted to announce Metamorfosi, the highly anticipated second UK solo exhibition by contemporary Italian sculptor Massimiliano Pelletti. Opening one week before Frieze London, the exhibition will run from 9th October to 7th November, and will be launched with an invitation only private view on 8th October. Massimiliano Pelletti’s exhibition opening night will also celebrate the unveiling of Bowman Sculpture’s newly expanded and redesigned space. 

Following Eredità–Pelletti’s first solo exhibition with Bowman Sculpture in 2023–which reflected on the artist’s lineage and Italian sculptural heritage, Metamorfosi signals a profound evolution in Massimiliano Pelletti’s practice. In this new body of work, classical forms are fractured and reimagined; mythological figures dissolve and recombine across cultural boundaries; flesh and stone blur into new hybrid deities.

Drawing from Greco-Roman gods, African mythology, pagan symbols, and the inner anatomy of the human form, Pelletti sculpts not inherited icons but newly born ones. These are gods in flux. Metamorfosi is both a transformation of matter and meaning, where myths are not remembered, but rewritten.

Central to the exhibition is African Ares, a powerful hybrid deity combining the Roman god of war with masks and motifs from African deities, carved in richly veined Pink Onyx. With its bold profile and striated surfaces, the sculpture suggests both strength and transformation, a figure shaped by cross-cultural memory and myth. Echoing the artist’s interest in duality and metamorphosis, African Ares stands as a contemporary totem: at once timeless, unfamiliar, and vividly present.

Another key work is Viscere, a striking sculpture that reveals the figure’s inner anatomy. Crafted in crystalline stone, the piece depicts a classical female torso that merges classical beauty with raw untouched natural stone that is reminiscent of human anatomy, flesh becomes stone, stone reveals flesh. The smooth surface gives way to intricate textures and glowing mineral layers, inviting the viewer to look beyond the idealised exterior. With its blend of beauty and rawness, Viscere explores themes of vulnerability, strength, and transformation. It is both anatomical and symbolic, a bold reimagining of the human figure that feels timeless and emotionally immediate. 

“These figures are not mere portraits. They are archetypes. They represent an idea... that has settled over centuries and resurfaces in our present as an echo “ Massimiliano Pelletti

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