Veronica Branca-Masa. Sculptures 1987-2010

As one of the series dedicated by the Museo Vincenzo Vela to the artists of Ticino of sure appeal, this exhibition will present sixty or so sculptures by Veronica Branca-Masa of which a small number of monumental works will be installed in the park and the rest, of medium and small size, in the display rooms of the museum. The exhibition will be based on a chronological representation of the artist's career from 1987, the year she moved from Ranzo to Carrara and opened a studio beneath the huge quarries of white marble, the material she favours in her artistic research.

The decision to switch from painting - never completely abandoned, though "abbreviated" within the context of her graphical background - to sculpture arose from her wish for direct and physical contact with stone as a working material. For thirty years the sculptress has explored a dialogue with it of great intensity made possible by personal cutting and carving, without the intervention of third parties. Her skilful and careful dressing of marble has been followed by a very personal investigation of limestone, whose "primordial state" and innermost expressiveness Branca-Masa likes to bring out by including the "natural" parts of the stone, which she prefers to leave unaltered.
Having gained a diploma in painting in 1977, Branca-Masa shifted her focus to plastic art in 1981 and, from 1987, has divided her time between Ranzo (Ticino) and Carrara where she has designed a sculpture park and set up the Studio Artemisia (a meeting point and place of exchange between the communities of international artists working in the area).