Carole Feuerman, a pioneer of hyperrealist sculpture and a long-standing icon of contemporary American art, takes center stage in Italy with her first major retrospective exhibition at Palazzo Bonaparte in Rome. Titled The Voice of the Body, this landmark show presents over 50 works, tracing Feuerman’s extraordinary artistic journey from her earliest drawings to never-before-seen sculptures, culminating in a powerful site-specific installation.
Feuerman has placed the human body at the center of her artistic research. For the artist, the body becomes a universal language, capable of narrating inner conflicts and becomes a symbol at the same time of the fragile and very powerful human condition.
A Realism Tempered by Pop
Curated by Demetrio Paparoni and produced by Arthemisia, the exhibition invites viewers into a space where sensuality, strength, and stillness converge. As art critic Stephen Foster writes, Feuerman’s works are “deliciously sensual” yet tempered by Pop, blending tactile realism with a formal sophistication that elevates her swimmers, divers, and silent figures into timeless icons.
From the fragmented wall relief to the fully rendered nude, Feuerman bridges antiquity and hypermodernity in sculptural dialogue. Her serene, stylized busts echoe classical reliefs while reimagining the swimmer as sacred icon. Her pieces may be lifelike, but they go beyond imitation, they are true meditations on identity, pause, and presence.
A Journey Through Time and Form
The largest and most comprehensive monographic exhibition of the artist ever held in Italy, traces more than 50 years of her work, illustrating the evolution of her technique and visual language. Displayed throughout the historic Palazzo Bonaparte, the exhibition follows Feuerman’s evolution: from her early erotic reliefs to her now-celebrated swimmers with sparkling bathing caps and sunlit skin, to fragmented wall sculptures that feel like relics from a mythic dream.
Works like relaxed figures on glossy red floats, or serene busts suspended in a moment of silence, demonstrate her unparalleled mastery of surface, anatomy and emotion
Right: Playful yet precise, this bold swimmer commands attention atop a rainbow-hued beach ball, a vibrant homage to joy and balance.
A swimmer in a lavender suit and glittering cap gently tilts her head, while another lays resting on a striped towel atop a turquoise inflatable: a summer dream frozen in resin. These women are not only hyperreal: they are hyper present, whispering the quiet strength of bodies at rest.
The Voice Becomes Many
A highlight of the show is Feuerman’s immersive, site-specific installation: a mirrored labyrinth of heads, fragments, and reflections. Here, the "voice" of the body becomes a chorus of memory and multiplicity. This space invites contemplation on the nature of identity, echoing the artist’s shift toward more conceptual dimensions without losing the intimacy of her figurative language.
An ocean of faces and forms: this immersive installation invites us to reflect on identity, multiplicity, and memory.
From monumental nudes that evoke classical sculpture to busts adorned with modern leatherwear, tattoos, and subtle defiance, Feuerman expands her lexicon to include new interpretations of femininity and power.
An International Icon
Feuerman’s sculptures have long captured the public imagination: from her towering Double Diver once installed at NetApp's campus in Silicon Valley, to her monumental Survival of Serena exhibited in Central Park, New York, and her numerous open-air showcases in Paris, Venice, Bilbao, Hong Kong, and South Korea, to only name a few. This Roman exhibition, endorsed by prestigious institutions such as the Medici Museum of Art and the Feuerman Sculpture Foundation, affirms her global legacy and ongoing artistic evolution.
Ultimately, The Voice of the Body is not just a retrospective, it is a true celebration of human vulnerability and resilience. Feuerman gives form to inner emotion through the stillness of a pose, the shimmer of water, or the tilt of a chin. Her realism, as Foster noted, “inhabits a place on the edges of performance and at the gates of environment.” The Rome exhibition is the first of major international events that will soon feature Feuerman’s works, notably at the Michigan Avenue Public Outdoor Exhibition in Chicago and at the Heydar Aliyev Center in Baku.
Markowicz Fine Art is proud to represent Carole Feuerman in the United States and share in the celebration of this major international milestone. This exhibition at Palazzo Bonaparte is a testament to the enduring power of sculpture to captivate, provoke, and profoundly move.
