Vertical, 2026

Martin Emschermann  

Martin Emschermann was born in Freiburg, Germany, in 1969. In 1990, he moved to Italy, first to Perugia, where he studied at the University for Foreigners, and later to Carrara, where he attended the Academy of Fine Arts, graduating in Sculpture.

From the beginning of his career, Emschermann developed a practice deeply connected to the human figure and the human condition, experimenting with different materials including terracotta, bronze and stone. During his early years, he focused particularly on the theme of the horse and rider, before gradually turning his attention to urban graffiti, children's drawings, psychological experience and lives lived on the margins of society.

He took part in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Italy and Germany, as well as international sculpture symposia, including the first International Symposium of Elba and the International Symposium of Sculpture in Sendai, Japan.

In 1997, Emschermann moved to Palermo, where he still lives and works. His relationship with the city and its cultural environment gradually became a central element of his artistic research. Urban life, popular culture, spirituality and human experience enter his sculptural universe, contributing to a distinctive language in which matter, gesture and psychology converge.

His production ranges from monumental sculpture to small-scale terracotta works, from bronze to maiolica terracotta, as well as experiments with blown glass. His figures are often characterised by a strong sense of movement and an acute sensitivity to gesture. His work explores themes including play, childhood, the relationship between humans and animals, mythology and the sacred. Through modelling, carving and recomposition, the artist transforms matter into a kind of architecture of the body, where weight, space and tension contribute to the construction of the image.

Alongside his personal artistic research, Emschermann has undertaken important public and religious commissions, creating liturgical works and furnishings for several churches in Sicily. He is also the author of the bronze portrait of the Verist writer Emmanuele Navarro della Miraglia, installed in Sambuca di Sicilia, and the monumental portrait of Pope John Paul II in maiolica terracotta for the Cathedral of Caltanissetta. His works are held in public and private collections in Italy and abroad.

2026 marks a particularly significant moment in Emschermann's career. In Palermo, his sculptures were presented in the solo exhibition , hosted by the Palermo Municipal Historical Archive, where his exploration of play, childhood and the human condition was presented through a selection of works. In the same year, Emschermann took part in the 2026 Venice Biennale of Art, as part of Equatorial Guinea's participation in , with the sculptural group ().

Today, Emschermann's work is distinguished by a figurative, expressive and deeply contemporary sculptural language, in which the tradition of form meets a continuous investigation into the human being, his psychological dimension, and the relationship between body, matter and environment.