An artist
of clear international vocation, Paolo Terdich was born on 28 January 1960 in
Piacenza, where he currently resides, after having lived and worked in several
European and African countries. A figurative painter endowed with innate
technical skill, his artistic practice seeks to create atmospheres that go
beyond the visible surface, penetrating the inner world of emotions.
His
artistic career has led him to present 23 solo exhibitions, beginning with his
debut in 2000 with Appunti di viaggio at the Italian Cultural Institute
in Cairo, Egypt, followed by a solo in 2004 in The Hague, the Netherlands.
These years were marked by research and experimentation with different
techniques, culminating in the transition to oil painting and a thematic focus
on solitude and the psychological introspection of his figures, through which
their inner torment emerges. His work constitutes an investigative process,
rendered through a silent and intimate realism that conveys a sense of waiting
and suspension.
From 2005
onward, Terdich refined his emotional, surreal realism, reaching its fullest
expression in the cycle dedicated to water. These works, characterized by
compositional dynamism and vivid chromatic intensity, convey sensations of
movement, freedom, calm, and suspension. The colour blue, predominant in his
paintings, becomes a symbol of tranquillity and harmony, contributing to an
emotional balance that evokes serenity. This emotional realism is also evident
in his still-life series, in which objects are transformed into metaphysical
presences—emblems of a state of mind—through a pure, sculptural light.
Between
2008 and 2018, he presented his work in a series of solo exhibitions in
Piacenza, eg. at Spazio Rosso Tiziano and at BiffiArte. In 2010 he exhibited in
Nigeria at the Italian Embassy with the solo show and, from 2019 onward, his
solo exhibitions have focused primarily abroad, first at the Von Zeidler Art
Gallery in Berlin, then at Galerie Sonia Monti in Paris in 2021. Of particular
significance is the 2022 the solo exhibition Aqua in New York at the
Saphira & Ventura Gallery, followed his participation at the 59th Venice
Biennale d’Arte, in 2022, within the National Pavilion of Grenada.
Since 2023,
Terdich has been dedicated to the artistic project Esodo, created in
memory of the victims of the foibe massacres and the Istrian-Dalmatian exodus. The
project was presented by the President of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, in February
2025, through the exhibition Esodo – Per non dimenticare, held in the
prestigious Sala del Cenacolo at the Vicolo Valdina complex of the
Chamber of Deputies. The works of Esodo depict the terror experienced by
the victims of the foibe and the uncertainty, anxiety, and disorientation of
the exiles, engaging once again with a territory—previously explored by the
artist—of surreal and at times metaphysical realism.
In 2025,
Terdich has celebrated 25 years of exhibition activity with the retrospective
exhibition Riflessi in Sospensione – 25 years of art (2000–2025),
organized in collaboration with the Municipality of Piacenza and held in the Salone
Monumentale of Palazzo Gotico. The exhibition was met with considerable
public success, attracting approximately one thousand visitors.
He has also
shown his artworks in numerous group exhibitions and art fairs both in
Italy—including Milan, Turin, Florence, Venice, Rome, Genoa, Carrara, and
Piacenza—and, above all, internationally, in cities such as New York, Toronto,
São Paulo, Sydney, London, Paris, Barcelona, Basel, Zurich, Berlin, and
Leipzig.
A member of
the Professional Artist Association since 2023, in 2022 he earned a Master of
Business of Art from the Professional Art Institute, in addition to a Master of
Business Administration degree obtained in 2008 from The Edinburgh Business
School – Heriot-Watt University. In 2024, the artist was included in the ULAN
(Union List of Artist Names) by Getty Research for Getty Vocabulary, with ID
500780730. In 2025, he was featured on Wikipedia (Italian and English
editions).
Several of
his works have received awards in various competitions (including the Premio
Arte), and his artistic activity has been reviewed and published in
numerous art magazines and books, including Watercolour – Paintings by
Contemporary Artists, where he was the only Italian artist selected among
21 masters of watercolour. His work has been the subject of numerous articles
and critical essays by approximately sixty art critics and historians,
including Paolo Levi, Alberto Moioli, Alfredo Pasolino, Elisa Manzoni, Carlo
Francou, Fabio Bianchi, Stefania Pieralice, Daniele Radini Tedeschi, and Leslie
Dutcher. Two of his works are part of the collection of the Copelouzos Family
Art Museum in Athens. His paintings are held by numerous collectors—around
sixty—in Italy (including conductor Maestro Riccardo Muti, who owns a portrait
painted by Terdich) and, above all, abroad. The artist has frequently
contributed to charitable initiatives by donating his works, notably in 2022 to
The Better World Fund Event for The David Lynch Foundation, a collateral
event of the Venice Film Festival held at La Misericordia. He has also donated
two large canvases to the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery in Lagos, Nigeria, inspired
by Blessed John Paul II.
