Italian sculptor Bruno Walpoth at the opening of his solo exhibition, Mute Encounters, in Beijing.[Photo provided to China Daily]

The exhibition at the Art Museum of the Central Academy of Fine Arts through May 1 charts the course of Walpoth's exploration of sculpting life-size figures since the 1980s.

But one can see in Walpoth's works that he doesn't make the same type of sculptures depicting traditional religious and genre themes, which the craftspeople of his hometown do. He has adopted a figurative approach, producing contemporary sculptures that dwell on the current mentality of people.

His works evoke a feeling of loneliness and desolation, and a reflection of their own states of mind.

What Walpoth relies on to touch people's emotions is an intimate connection with pieces of wood, which he has worked with since boyhood. At the age of 14, Walpoth entered a studio in Ortisei to receive formal training in sculpting. For five years he learned how to carve figures of mostly religious and genre motifs, which he, however, felt no passion for.

Walpoth realized he didn't want to follow in the footsteps of many locals. He left his hometown, hoping to be exposed to the full spectrum of contemporary art. He enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich, one of German's oldest and most distinguished art schools, in 1978. There he studied sculpture for six years.