PUNTO SULL’ARTE inaugurates WILD SOULS, a dual solo exhibition featuring sculptor SIMONE BENEDETTO and painter CLAUDIA GIRAUDO in a dialogue that intertwines play, nature, and carefree spirit. The vernissage will take place on SATURDAY, MAY 16, from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM at the gallery’s main location, Viale Sant’Antonio 59/61, Varese. The artists, both from Turin, and curator Alessandra Redaelli will be present. The exhibition remains open until Saturday, June 13, 2026.
The exhibition pairs two artists who, despite their vastly different artistic languages, share a deep investigation into childhood and its connection to our most authentic essence through our relationship with nature. On one side, Claudia Giraudo, a longtime artist of PUNTO SULL’ARTE, beloved for her polished, antique-flavored painting; on the other, Simone Benedetto, introduced at the gallery last September, with his sculptures of children at play — fresh and immediate as snapshots.
Giraudo offers another chapter in her narrative of preadolescence as a magical age when boys and girls can still hear the voice of their spirit animal. Her portraits are steeped in magic: a little girl beside a cow sports bovine ears as if she too were transforming, or a girl with almond-shaped eyes balances a leopard cub on her head, the two seeming to merge into one. Beautiful, light, and dreamlike, Giraudo’s girls look us in the eye as if calling us — us too — to listen to the authentic voice of our instinct. And just as compellingly, Benedetto’s children recall us to the instinct of play as a means of self-discovery: poised to pounce like lions, or appearing ready to take flight like birds. Where large animal heads merge with human faces as though the two creatures were a single soul, his more recent works introduce vegetal elements. Cherry branches become deer antlers; giant monstera leaves mimic elephant ears — a search for one’s truest self and wildest soul that seduces and involves us.
Simone Benedetto
Born in Turin in 1985, Simone Benedetto built a solid academic foundation, graduating with honors from the Accademia Albertina di Belle Arti in the Sculpture and Plastic Arts section. The search for his own being, together with the profound themes of childhood and play, form the central pillars of his production. His works are not merely aesthetic creations but the result of carefully calibrated gestures and technical mastery that lends his figures a striking realism. The distinctive element of his work is the figure of the child transforming into an animal — a powerful metaphor for the complex psychological transformation that occurs within each of us during the crucial development of personality. Through the meticulous precision of every sculptural gesture, the artist captures and gives tangible form to that universal sensation of change and inner transformation we all experience from childhood onward. Benedetto’s sculptures go beyond mere representation, presenting themselves as genuine stimuli for reflection on complex and sensitive themes — social, existential, and human — approached with an authentically original and innovative gaze. Thanks to his notable versatility, Benedetto has explored and mastered various materials, including cement, resins, silicones, and classic bronze. His works have gained widespread recognition, demonstrated by exhibitions in prestigious venues such as Domus Lascaris and Palazzo Saluzzo in Turin. He has actively participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions nationally and internationally; with PUNTO SULL’ARTE he took part in the group show “<20 15×15/20×20” (2024) and was the protagonist of the solo show “In-Wild” (2025). He lives and works in Turin.
Claudia Giraudo
Claudia Giraudo pursues a highly refined pictorial research. Nothing in her work is ever rushed, nothing escapes — everything, every single character and setting, seems to enjoy a peace born of the slow acceptance of time as a precious gift, never to be wasted but savored in its gradual unfolding. In her emblematic scenes, steeped in symbolism and lofty references yet still light and fresh, the soul becomes a Daimon and appears beside “its” person as if we suddenly discovered ourselves endowed with a third eye. Born in 1974 in Turin, Giraudo graduated with top marks in 2001 from the Accademia Albertina di Belle Arti in Turin under the guidance of Prof. Franco Fanelli. She began her research in figurative painting, training through the study of Renaissance and Northern European Masters — a background that emerges both in her technique and subject choices, while maintaining her personal stylistic signature. She exhibits frequently at art fairs, private galleries, and public institutions, including the Museo Nazionale Etrusco Villa Giulia and the Museo Carlo Bilotti — Aranciera di Villa Borghese in Rome, the Polo del ‘900 in Turin, the Museo Ebraico in Bologna, The Artist House in Tel Aviv, and the Museo Casa del Conte Verde in Rivoli. Her works are also held in permanent collections and museum acquisitions both nationally and internationally, including the Harmony Art Foundation in Mumbai (India), the MACIST Museum in Biella, the Museo Eusebio in Alba (CN), the Town Council Hall of Bossolasco (CN), and the Museo Civico of Bevagna (PG). She lives and works in a small town in the Asti countryside.
Photo credits: PUNTO SULL’ARTE
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