Sydney Exhibition

Leo Stockinger

25 September – 5 October, 2025
Opens Fri 26 Sept, 6 – 8pm

Sculptor Leo Stockinger will present his exhibition Viscera for the first time in Sydney where he has lived since 2005. The artist has already participated in group exhibitions in Brasília and Paraty, and earlier this year held his first solo show in Brazil during the Mercosul Biennial.

Born in Porto Alegre, Stockinger studied sculpture at the National Art School in Sydney, incorporating diverse influences into his practice, which reflects a multicultural experience and a search for new forms of expression without losing touch with the sculptural tradition.

Viscera came to life when Leo discovered a red material with a wet appearance and surprising plasticity – an adhesive that evoked the living matter of flesh and viscera.“I searched for fossilized bodies in the trunks of dead trees on the beach. They were traces of time, forgotten remains that carried stories within their dry fibers,” he reveals.

From the fusion of these elements emerged unique sculptural bodies, where wood and adhesive are incorporated into different forms and sizes, re-signifying matter and transforming it into art. The viewer is invited to feel what only the soul is capable of perceiving: “The flesh now pulses again – no longer inert, but living viscera, reconfigured through art,” Stockinger adds.

There is beauty and discomfort. Attraction and repulsion. Desire and fear. Provoked by the deep strangeness of exposed viscera and the constant search for pre-established patterns, the viewer is confronted with what each body longs to communicate. Gestures, sensations, and forms fused into matter and doubt. Stockinger’s sculptures transcend plastic beauty and confront us with questions – about gender, sexual energy, guilt, possession, anger, shame, relationships, and desire. Body and mind are accomplices in each piece and in those who are touched by his creation. Flesh, signal, desire, symbol.

The works will be on view until October 5. Texts by art critic Jacob Klintowitz and Sydney based artist Tom Isaacs reflect on the poetics and impact of Stockinger’s work.

About the Artist 

Leonardo Stockinger is a contemporary sculptor who graduated in 2009 from the National Art School in Sydney, Australia. Born in Porto Alegre, Brazil, in 1980, he has been living in Australia for two decades, where he lives and works. Leo quite literally grew up surrounded by art. His artistic heritage begins within his family, with his grandfather, Francisco Stockinger, a renowned sculptor who had a profound influence on his life. From an early age, he frequented the studio and, immersed in that magical environment, witnessed forms emerging from plaster, clay, metal, and wood. He learned the fundamentals of sculpture and also studied drawing with painter Danúbio Gonçalves, consolidating his understanding of lines and shadows.

Although he initially began studying Law in Brazil, Leo chose to follow his true calling, devoting himself entirely to the arts. His education at the National Art School consolidated his sculptural research, allowing him to deepen his exploration of form and matter. In April 2025, he brought Viscera to Porto Alegre, Brazil, as part of the Portas Abertas Project by the Mercosul Biennial Foundation, with huge success.