Federico Tosi Very happy old man talking to a bird, 2026

Federico Tosi’s Very Happy Old People series offers a cynical yet unexpectedly tender observation of the human condition. The sculptures depict elderly bodies marked by age: sagging skin, wrinkled faces, extremely long beards or hair, exposed flesh. Yet these figures are not tragic. Nude and stripped of any historical markers, they resist placement in a specific time. They could be early Homo sapiens, mythological beings, or survivors from a distant future.

Their happiness is what makes them both absurd and disarming. Reclining, laughing, or holding animals and plants, these figures appear to commune with nature rather than dominate it. In Tosi’s work, old age is not a sign of decline; it suggests wisdom, happiness, and an improbable form of hope.