GALLERY ETHER is pleased to announce “The Body Knows Everything”, a new solo-exhibition of Italian artist Sabina Feroci, featuring ceramic and paper mache sculptural works alongside paintings, collages, and paper jewelry pieces, to be held from February 28th to March 21st, 2026.
In the artist’s words:
“For years I have been carrying on an artistic research exploring the relation of mother-daughter / daughter-mother, a relationship extending infinitely in time, in the past as well as into the future. At the heart of this work there is the reflection over this chain, invisible but permanent, uniting female generations within a family, interrogating over the maternal heritage, emotive and symbolic, which is transmitted from mother to daughter.
I represent this link as a thin red line, subtle but unbreakable. A trace carved on paper, over and over, almost as marking the passage of time passing, making the weight and the presence of generations before ours visible. Every passage strengthens the rut, carves it, making it a living memory. Past mothers do not disappear with death, they keep on existing within the experience of daughters, in an ancestral knowledge passed on from mother to daughter, from woman to woman.
In 2024 I encountered the poetry of Anne Sexton(1928~1974)1, particularly the poem “The Double Image”2. It has been a revealing meeting. In those words I have found again the heart of my research, the heart rending complexity of being at the same time, daughter and mother. In its seeing reflected between mother and daughter, I have recognised my emotions, my fears, the deep sense of continuity and responsibility.
I, who was never quite sure
about being a girl, needed another
life, another image to remind me.
And this was my worst guilt; you could not cure
nor soothe it. I made you to find me.3
To become a mother means to actively enter this chain. Becoming the one who passes on, who leaves a mark. And exactly within this passage it is hidden the secret nucleus of every family: what is being transmitted? And how? It is this interrogative which leads my project, looking for a common thread which does not break, but becomes narrative, memory, identity.”
Some people become adults before they have ever been children.
The nature of body and mind is inseparably tied to experience. What do we see in these ostensibly childlike works? Childhood trauma can intercept memory. Survival mechanisms attempt to erase the presence of pain. The traces may become hidden, yet they follow closely, like a shadow.
Art, with an attitude that is both practical and visionary, both painful and optimistic, depicts the ecstasy and despair within life as a spontaneous celebration. It revisits the past without fear, fusing happiness and torment into a state of coexistence. As in The Body Knows Everything (2000) by Banana Yoshimoto (b. 1964), realist brushstrokes allow blossoms and storms to dance together. The body is a sacred gift possessed by each person. The key to release is kept in the same drawer where trauma is locked away.
Sabina Feroci (b. 1971), through a series of sonatas that speak directly to the heart, presents a healing journey refined through observing the world. She integrates emotions from daily life that are often taken for granted yet deeply significant, drawing strength from a powerful force inherited from an unknown realm.
All kinds of memories will resurface throughout life’s journey, until the moment they can be seen with a smile.
1 Anne Sexton (born Anne Gray Harvey; 1928 – 1974) was an American poet known for her highly personal, confessional verse. She won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1967 for her book Live or Die . Her poetry details her long battle with bipolar disorder, suicidal tendencies, and intimate details from her private life, including relationships with her husband and children, whom had been physically and sexually assaulted. Source: Wikipedia
2 Source: The Complete Poems of Anne Sexton (Houghton Mifflin, 1981)
3 Copyright Credit: Anne Sexton, “The Double Image” from The Complete Poems of Anne Sexton, published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Copyright ©1981 by Linda Gray Sexton and Loring Conant, Jr. Reprinted with the permission of Sll/Sterling Lord Literistic, Inc. source from internet : POETRY FOUNDATION.
Italian artist Sabina Feroci was born in Florence. Specializing in a range of techniques, like painting, collage, sculpture, jewelry design, bas-relief, and illustration. Sabina is renowned for her work because of its exceptional fusion of artistry and skill. Her work has been displayed at modern art galleries throughout Europe and Asia, which is evidence of her influence and impact on a global scale.
