Overview

"A good artisan carves away what he knows, and the artist carves away what he feels."

In Mario Dilitz's work, classical material and classical medium meet a contemporary view of the world. His frontal sculptures, some of them human-sized, show people who look towards the viewer without much facial expression. The technique and the formal language is a thoroughly classical one and goes back to the beginnings of sculpture: formed and carved out of wood or cast in bronze. But the figures themselves are located in the here and now. A little boy holding an object behind his back. Clad only in a bath towel around his hips, the assumption is that it is a surfboard the boy is carrying here. But no, he is holding a fish. A fish? Yes! A certain irony but also surreality intervenes here. Mario Dilitz's models for his figures are anonymous. 

  

Mario Dilitz prefers to work with various types of wood for his sculptures. Initially, the individual pieces of wood are glued together, whereby the traces of glue are visible to the outside due to the colouring of the glue used. This resulting block is then treated in the classical way, the wood is removed, thus freeing the body, the figure. At which points the mostly red or black visible glue traces become visible can only be guessed at first.

Works
Biography

Mario Dilitz lives and works in Axams, near Innsbruck in Tyrol, and in Munich

born 1973 in Innsbruck, Austria

 

His interest in working with wood was awakened in him at a young age by his father. After a short career as a freestyle skier, which he interrupted early after a serious accident due to injury, he trained as a wood sculptor at the Fachschule für Holzbildhauer St. Ulrich in Italy and has been working as a freelance artist since 2004.

 

His works are exhibited worldwide at art fairs such as Art Bodensee, VOLTA in Basel, the Swiss Triennial of Sculpture in Bad Ragaz, Art Karlsruhe, Art Fair Cologne, Luxembourg Art Week, Masterpiece London, Fine Arts Paris & La Biennale, Estampa Madrid, SWAB Barcelona, Contemporary Istanbul, Art_Miami, Palm Beach Modern + Contemporary or TEFAF New York.

 

In 2023, the sculpture "Boy with Shark" by Mario Dilitz was part of the sculpture trail in Mayfair in London. Alongside works by Bernar Venet, Antony Gormley, Dame Elisabeth Frink, Henry Moore and Sean Scully, his sculpture featured very prominently on Bond Street.

 

From 4 May to 30 October 2024, Mario Dilitz will once again be represented at the Bad Ragartz Triennial in Bad Ragaz.

 

Exhibitions
Art Fairs