Biography
An artist with a distinct international vocation, Paolo Terdich was born on January 28, 1960, in Piacenza, where he currently resides after an extended period living and working across various countries in Europe and Africa. A figurative painter gifted with innate technical mastery, Terdich’s artistic vision seeks to transcend the visible world, delving into the inner realms of emotion and the intangible.
In 2025, he marks twenty-five years of artistic activity, a journey that began in 2000 with his solo exhibition Appunti di viaggio at the Italian Cultural Institute in Cairo. That same year, he unveiled his most recent solo project, Esodo, in Rome, presented by Lorenzo Fontana, President of the Chamber of Deputies. Conceived as a tribute to the victims of the Foibe massacres and the Julian-Dalmatian exodus at the end of the Second World War, the project aims to preserve the memory of these tragic events through the language of art.
Over the course of his career, Terdich has held 22 solo exhibitions and participated in approximately 90 group shows and 40 art fairs in major cultural capitals including Milan, Rome, Turin, Venice, Berlin, London, New York, Paris, São Paulo, Sydney, and Zurich. Notably, in 2022 he took part in the 59th Venice Biennale (Grenada National Pavilion) and presented the solo exhibition Aqua in New York.
His works have received numerous international accolades, been reviewed by over 60 art critics, and featured in prominent publications, including Watercolour – Paintings by Contemporary Artists, where he was the sole Italian artist selected among 21 masters of contemporary watercolor. Over sixty art critics and historians have reviewed and written about his work, including Paolo Levi, Alfredo Pasolino, Elisa Manzoni, Carlo Francou, Fabio Bianchi, Stefania Pieralice, Daniele Radini Tedeschi, and Leslie Dutcher.
Two of his paintings form part of the Copelouzos Family Art Museum collection in Athens, and more than sixty collectors in Italy and abroad have acquired his works.
In addition to his artistic practice, Terdich has actively supported charitable initiatives, donating works to events such as the Better World Fund for the David Lynch Foundation at the Venice Film Festival (2022) and to the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery in Lagos (Nigeria).
In 2025, his biography is published on Wikipedia (Italian and UK editions), and in 2024, he was officially included in the Union List of Artist Names (ULAN) by the Getty Research Institute (ID 500780730). A member of the Professional Artist Association since 2023, Terdich also holds a Master of Business of Art from the Professional Artist Institute (2022), adding to his Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree, obtained in 2008 from Edinburgh Business School – Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh.
His artistic journey began with a series of solo exhibitions, commencing in 2000 with Appunti di viaggio at the Italian Cultural Institute in Cairo, Egypt. This was followed in 2002 by States of Mind at the Palazzo Comunale in Sauze d’Oulx (Turin), and in 2004 at the American Women’s Cultural Association in The Hague, Netherlands. These formative years were characterised by a period of research and experimentation, during which the artist explored a variety of techniques before gradually embracing oil painting as his principal medium. His work at the time gravitated towards themes of solitude and psychological introspection, unveiling the inner torment of his subjects through a silent, intimate realism. Each composition sought to conjure atmospheres dense with expectation and mystery, inviting the viewer to look beyond mere appearances and venture into a more profound, emotional dimension. Though not overtly shaped by the influence of Felice Casorati, his pictorial language reveals an undeniable affinity with Casorati’s meditations on evocative stillness and compositional harmony. The light becomes a means of sculpting volumes and forms, endowing them with a subtly metaphysical dimension — an atmosphere that heightens the sense of expectation and mystery pervading his paintings. A palpable sense of solitude and introspection pervades his paintings, manifesting with extraordinary intensity. The figures portrayed, immersed in atmospheres of suspended stillness, are suffused with an aura of poetry and mystery, existing on the threshold between reality and dream, suspended in time and space, offering the attentive viewer the opportunity for an intimate, personal interpretation.
From 2005 onward, Terdich progressively honed a distinctive form of emotional surreal realism, which found its most complete expression in a remarkable cycle of works dedicated to the theme of water. It is worth recalling that Terdich was the pioneering artist to embark on this particular approach — a visual language that would later inspire numerous imitators across the world. Through compositions distinguished by dynamic structure and luminous, vibrant colour, these paintings convey sensations of movement, freedom, stillness, and suspension. The prevailing use of blue within his palette emerges as a recurring symbol of tranquillity and harmony, fostering an emotional equilibrium that gently envelops the viewer in a sense of serene contemplation. At the heart of these intricate works lies one of the painter’s most enduring challenges: the depiction of water and the elusive, ephemeral play of light upon its ever-shifting surface. This emotional realism extends beyond his aquatic compositions into a compelling series of still lives, where everyday objects are transformed into metaphysical presences — silent emblems of inner states — illuminated by a pure, sculptural light. In these works, light assumes a central, almost narrative role, generating reflections, transparencies, and subtle tonal shifts that lift the compositions beyond mere formal arrangement. Through delicate, scarcely perceptible movements, the inanimate acquires a quiet, latent vitality, and each painting becomes a meditative exploration of presence, absence, and the delicate interplay between matter and emotion.
Between 2008 and 2018, Terdich presented a succession of solo exhibitions in Piacenza, beginning with Le Forme e i Colori dell’Anima at Atelier d’Arte, followed by four exhibitions at Spazio Rosso Tiziano: Trasparenti Emozioni and Donna Turchese (2009), Luci e contrasti (2015), and Due mondi a confronto (2018). In 2017, he exhibited at BiffiArte with The Painting of Paolo Terdich, and in 2010 in Nigeria at the Italian Embassy, with the solo show Cultural Evening with Paolo Terdich — a Contemporary Italian Painter. Across various solo and group exhibitions, fairs, and cultural events, Terdich has presented works drawn from his diverse artistic projects. Among these is Expressions and Gestures, a series that explores the expressive power of hands as a profound and universal form of communication. Alongside this, he developed a body of portraiture composed within distilled, metaphysical spaces, where figures appear suspended in silence, imbued with an atmosphere of magic realism and introspective stillness. Another notable project, Ossessione, takes inspiration from the film Sin City, seeking to reinterpret its iconic noir aesthetic through a lens both intimate and surreal. Blending elements of dark cinema with dreamlike atmospheres, the series conjures a world of stark contrasts and shadowy allure, where light and darkness merge to create a distinctive visual poetry. The result is a collection of works that draw the viewer into a haunting, immersive dimension — one where reality distorts, and the boundaries between presence and absence, clarity and obscurity, dissolve into a compellingly enigmatic narrative.
From 2019, his solo exhibitions have increasingly taken place on the international stage, beginning with Two Worlds in Comparison at Von Zeidler Art Gallery in Berlin, followed by Paolo Terdich (2021) at Galerie Sonia Monti in Paris. Of particular significance is his 2022 solo exhibition Aqua at Saphira & Ventura Gallery in New York, followed by the two-person exhibition Dal materico all’etereo at Palazzo Ghizzoni-Nasalli in Piacenza. Among his most noteworthy achievements is his participation, by invitation, in the 59th International Art Exhibition — La Biennale di Venezia 2022, as part of the Grenada National Pavilion. During this period, Terdich’s solo exhibitions primarily showcased the latest paintings from his Acqua project, within which he introduced increasingly intricate compositional structures to heighten the works’ inherent dynamism. At the heart of these pieces lies the challenge of capturing the movement of the swimmer — achieved through the superimposition of sequential images of the same figure at different moments in time. The intention is to convey not only the fluid motion of the human body but also the restless vitality of water itself, depicted through transparencies, splashes, and refractions viewed from an aerial, flattened, almost surreal perspective. In these compositions, the physical forms fragment into a constellation of reflections and colour, their outlines often dissolving within the shimmering, liquid environment. Each figure, rendered in vigorous, energetic strokes, is multiplied to evoke the sequential rhythm of swimming. At times, a harmonious intuition emerges between an intensified realism and echoes of Futurist aesthetics. Terdich’s meticulous, probing approach to realism seems to verge upon a futurist sensibility, as both languages lend themselves to the visual inquiry of matter inhabiting time and space — determining its motion and, by extension, its very nature. In this way, his works become not only representations of dynamic forms but also meditations on perception, temporality, and the ceaseless interplay between solid bodies and the intangible fluidity surrounding them.
Since 2023, Paolo Terdich has dedicated himself to the artistic project Exodus, conceived in memory of the victims of the Foibe massacres and the Julian-Dalmatian exodus. This initiative was born with the sole intent of preserving and disseminating the memory of these tragic historical events through an unprecedented artistic language. The project stands as his personal tribute to a national drama which, for too long, lacked due visibility and now demands to be remembered within its proper historical context.
At the invitation of the Presidency of the Chamber of Deputies, Exodus was premiered in Rome on the occasion of the Day of Remembrance, with a two-week exhibition held from February 10, 2025, at the prestigious Sala del Cenacolo, within the Vicolo Valdina Complex. While remaining within the framework of figurative realism, in these works Terdich explores a markedly different approach from his customary style, adopting a material-based painting technique characterized by neutral, desaturated tones. Through these evocative compositions, he conveys the sense of terror experienced by the innocent Italian victims of the Foibe and the anguish, uncertainty, and disorientation of the exiles. The works revisit a terrain already explored in his past — that of surreal and at times metaphysical realism — to powerfully capture these human dramas.
Some Solo Exhibitions
Out of the 22 solos:
2025: ▪ Esodo. Per non dimenticare” – Vicolo Valdina Complex, Italian Chamber of Deputies (Roma).
2022: ▪ “Aqua” – “Saphira&Ventura Gallery” (New York, US); • “Dal materico all’etereo” – Palazzo Ghizzoni – Nasalli Rossa (Piacenza, I).
2021: ▪ “Paolo Terdich at Galerie Sonia Monti” (Paris, F).
2019: ▪ “Due mondi a confronto” – “Von Zeidler Art Gallery” (Berlin, D).
2018: ▪ “Due mondi a confronto” – “Spazio Rosso Tiziano” (Piacenza, I).
2017: ▪ “Transparency – La pittura di Paolo Terdich” – “Biffi Arte” (Piacenza, I).
2015: ▪ “Luci e contrasti” – “Spazio Rosso Tiziano” (Piacenza, I).
2010: ▪ “Cultural Evening with Paolo Terdich – a contemporary Italian painter” – the Residence of the Italian Embassy in Nigeria (Abuja, Nigeria).
2009: ▪ “Emozioni” – “Spazio Rosso Tiziano” (Piacenza, I); • “Donna Turchese” – “Spazio Rosso Tiziano” (Piacenza, I).
2008: ▪ “Le Forme e i Colori dell’Anima” – Atelier d’Arte” (Piacenza).
2007: ▪ “Emozioni” – Galleria Sant’Ilario (Piacenza).
2004: ▪ “Paolo Terdich at The American Women Cultural Association” (L’Aja, NL). ▪ “Riflessioni” – Libri & Caffè (Milano).
2002: ▪ “Stati d’animo” – Palazzo Municipale (Sauze d’Oulx).
2000: ▪ “Appunti di viaggio” – “Istituto Italiano di Cultura” (Cairo, Egypt).
Some Group Exhibitions
2025: ▪ “Artraveller” – Audrey Fine Art Gallery (Sydney)
2024: ▪ “La Grande Bellezza VI – Il Piccolo Formato”, Kunsthaus Burg Obernberg, (Obernberg am Inn, A). ▪ “Alla Prima” – Arte e Cultura in Laguna, (Cavallino Treporti, Venezia, I).
2023: ▪ “Aqua” – Gallerium Art (Toronto, CA). ▪ “Artboxy collectives” at: Art Lab California (Los Angeles), Johnathan Schultz Gallery (Miami), Thomson Gallery (Zug, CH), Finity Gallery (Berlino), Nicoleta Gallery (Berlino), Andie Art Gallery (Atene), Casa Del Arte (Palma di Maiorca), Andakulova Gallery (Dubai).
2022: ▪ “Deconstructions”- Saphira&Ventura Gallery (New York). ▪ “Side by Syde/Venice Art Biennale 2022” – DORAH e Saphira&Ventura Gallery (Venezia). ▪ “Delicatezza” – OnArt Gallery (Firenze). ▪ “Contemporanea Portofino 2022” – MACO Museum e Saphira&Ventura Gallery – Castello Brown (Portofino).
2021: • “18th Annual Palm Beach Show” (Palm Beach). • at “Paul Fisher Gallery”- (West Palm Beach).
2020: • “Silenzio”, ONART Gallery Firenze • “Untouchable Feelings”, Saphira&Ventura Gallery (New York, US).
2019: • “Still Leben”, ONART Gallery (Firenze, I) • “Obscuration”, Saphira & Ventura Gallery (New York, US) • “Side by Side/la Biennale di Venezia – Un tocco di zaffiro”, S&V Gallery/Arte SpazioTempo by NYICAS (Venezia, I)
2018: • “Eoykos”, Palazzo Municipale (Palazzolo Acreide, I).
2016: ▪ “I Volti dell’Acqua”, Spazio Arte Castello (Torino, I).
2014: • “Identità e metamorfosi”, La Spadarina (Piacenza, I) • “Per sognare”, Galleria Velasquez (Milano, I).”
Some Events
2025: ▪ “L’Istria, Trieste e la memoria divisa d’Europa” – Palazzo Gotico (Piacenza).
2024: ▪ “Un esodo per non dimenticare – Serata in ricordo delle foibe e dell’esodo giuliano-dalmata”, Sala Panini, PalaBancaEventi, Palazzo Galli (Piacenza). ▪ “Art Monaco 2024 – Art3f”, Chapiteau de Fontvieille (Montecarlo, Principato di Monaco). ▪ “BAF 2024 – Bergamo Arte Fiera”
2023: ▪ “ArtExpo Basel 2023” (Basilea). ▪ “Artexpo New York 2023” (New York). ▪ “ArtExpo Miami 2023” (Miami). ▪ “SwissArtExpo 2023” (Zurigo).
2022: ▪ “59ma Biennale di Venezia 2022 – An Unknown That Does Not Terrify” – Padiglione Nazionale Grenada” (Venezia). ▪ “The Better World Fund Event for The David Lynch Foundation”, evento, collaterale al Festival del Cinema di Venezia – La Misericordia di Venezia. ▪ “Miami Artweeks 2022” (Miami).
2021: ▪ “18th Annual Palm Beach Show” – (Palm Beach).
2019: • “Salon International d’art contemporain – Art3f/Haute Savoie (La Roche sur Foron, F).
2017: • “The Artbox Project – Basel 1.0 – Basel artweeks 2017” (Basel).
2016: • “Grand Marchè d’Art Contemporain – Place de la Bastille” (Paris).
2015: • “VI Fiera d’arte moderna contemporanea di pittura e scultura” (Carrara).
2014: • “V Fiera d’arte moderna contemporanea di pittura e scultura” (Carrara).
2013: • ” IV Fiera d’arte moderna contemporanea di pittura e scultura” (Carrara, I) • “Vernice Art Fair – 2013 – XI Fiera d’Arte Contemporanea” (Forlì, I).
2011: • “Triennale di Roma- Esposizione Internazionale di Arti Visive” – “Complesso Monumentale Galleria L’Agostiniana” (Roma, I).
2008: • “VII Biennale Internazionale di Roma 2008”, Sale del Bramante (Roma, I).
Some Awards
2024: ▪ 4th (Jury prize) – International Contest “Alla Prima” – Arte e Cultura in Laguna (Cavallino Treporti, Venezia).
2023: ▪ Winner of “ArtBox Expo Basel 2023” – ArtBox, (Basel-Zug, CH).
2021: • Semi-finalist – “Premio Arte 2021” (Cairo Editore, Milano).
2016: • Semi-finalist – “Premio Arte 2016” (Cairo Editore, Milano).
2013: • Finalist – “Artavita 3rd Contemporary Masters Contest” (Santa Barbara, US) • 2nd – “Luana Raia Prize” (London).
2012: ▪ Finalist – International Prize “Biennale Torino 2012” at “Galleria Arte Città Amica” and “GAM – Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna” (Torino).
2011: • Finalist – “Saatchi Drawing Showdown” – “Saatchi Gallery” (London).
2008: • Winner of “IX Concorso Nazionale Emozioni e Magie del Natale” – Atelier d’Arte (Piacenza, I) • Semi-finalist – “Premio Arte 2008” (G. Mondadori, Milano, I) • 1st – “VII International Biennale di Roma 2008” (Roma, I) • Honourific title of “Cavaliere dell’Arte” – “Associazione Galleria d’Arte Centro” (Firenze, I) • 1st – “Premio Nazionale d’Arte “Arte di Primavera” (Roma, I).
2007: • Winner of the “National Contest VII Biennale Internazionale di Arte Moderna di Roma 2008” (Piacenza, I).
2006: ▪ S. Ambrogio’s Siver Prize at the XIV Internazional Contest “S. Ambrogio 2006” (Milano).Basel-
