Simone Benedetto
Panda Soul, 2025.
Limited edition, hand-painted sculpture.
Signature and number etched on the bottom of the sculpture.

Through his Animal Souls, Benedetto reflects on a contemporary longing for reconnection with nature and for a renewed sense of communion with instinct. Childhood becomes a central metaphor, representing a state of purity and freedom before social conditioning takes hold. His work suggests that beneath constructed identities lies an atavistic essence shared by humans and animals alike. This idea resonates with a long philosophical tradition, including Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s view in Discourse on the Origin and Foundations of Inequality among Men, in which nature is described as a benevolent original state and human suffering as largely self-inflicted through a departure from a simple, natural mode of life.

Simone Benedetto – Off The Wall Gallery, Houston, Texas.