With ‘Late Bloom’, Alexandru Gavriel Ganea presents his first solo exhibition at pied-à-terre, unveiling marble and soapstone sculptures that merge classical craftsmanship with contemporary expression. A sculptor with an intimate connection to his medium, Ganea, after his Fine Art degree at Kunsthochschule Weißensee, trained in Carrara, Italy, a city famed for its pristine marble and its legacy as the workplace of great sculptors. This deep-rooted history, combined with Ganea’s own evolving artistic voice, results in a body of work that explores themes of time, transformation, and personal identity.
Born in Jerusalem in 1990, with Israeli and Romanian roots, Ganea has developed a sculptural language that is at once abstract and deeply personal. Now based between Berlin and Carrara, his artistic practice embraces the raw beauty of marble and wood, allowing materiality itself to guide the forms he creates. His sculptures express a tension between control and surrender—between the inherent permanence of stone and the organic, fluid gestures he carves into it.
Marble, a medium often associated with permanence and grandeur, takes on a more intimate, exploratory role in Ganea’s hands. In works like ‘Flow 1’ (2024), a compact yet evocative piece in Carrara marble, he captures movement in its most distilled form—an undulating surface that seems to ripple despite the rigidity of its material. Similarly, ‘Coiled’ (2024), a towering sculpture combining marble and oak, suggests a restrained energy, a force held in tension, waiting to unfurl.
In ‘Love in Times of Aggression’ (2024), Ganea juxtaposes Carrara marble with oak, exploring the fragility of intimacy in a world marked by conflict. The piece feels like a meditation on resilience and vulnerability, evoking the contrast between softness and hardness, love and struggle.
Ganea’s exploration of transformation and decay is also evident in ‘Swan Song’ (2023), where rusted steel contrasts with the pristine whiteness of marble, symbolizing the passage of time and the inevitability of change.
The title ‘Late Bloom’ speaks to more than just the artistic process—it reflects a deeply personal meditation on delayed transformation and the patience required for something to come into full expression.
Through this show, Ganea invites viewers into a dialogue between past and present, technique and innovation. He acknowledges the weight of sculptural history while asserting his own voice, proving that marble—a medium that has defined artistic greatness for centuries—still holds endless possibilities for reinvention. It is a celebration of patience, persistence, and the beauty of arriving in one’s own time.
