Daniele Fortuna

Daniele Fortuna is an Italian sculptor, born in Milan in 1981, known for merging classical mythology with the bold language of pop culture. Working primarily in carved wood, layered and painted in vibrant acrylic hues, he creates "pixelated" sculptures that bridge antiquity and contemporary visual culture. From timeless figures such as Venus and Zeus to modern icons like Batman and Mickey Mouse, his work reimagines mythological and popular subjects through stacked wooden forms and luminous neon color.

Fortuna studied at the European Institute of Design in Milan and then spent several years in Ireland, where working in a lighting studio gave him a sustained experience of wood and inspired him to make sculpture from the material. Back in Italy he founded his studio in Piacenza, and he currently lives and works in Cornovecchio.

Each sculpture is composed of individual pieces of plywood, cut by hand, assembled like a puzzle and hand painted, transforming the material beyond recognition. Channeling a childhood fascination with the dream-worlds of mythology, Fortuna gives the gods and heroes he admired as a boy a third dimension and a splash of contemporary color. In the "Colormination" series, works such as Aphrodite Colormination (2021) are painted white on the exterior, and a section of the sculpture is then spliced open to expose kaleidoscopic color gradients inside. Alongside the mythological figures he has reinterpreted canonical images from art history, among them the Mona Lisa, the Girl with a Pearl Earring and Ingres' Grande Odalisque.

His sculptures establish a connection, a bridge over time, between elements of traditional Italian art and pop-art expression, bringing the past into dialogue with the present. Fortuna has said that he wants to recognize the truth in the messages that come from the past and to reaffirm and update them through a new visual language.