Wooden Wonders: The surreal sculptures of Willy Verginer

They're the creation of Willy Verginer, a 60-year-old Italian artist who lives and works in Ortisei BZ, South Tyrol, and whose works are located in numerous private and public collections, both Italian and international.

Once his naturalistic, near-life size wooden sculptures are carved, the artist adds eye-catching blocks of geometric colour using acrylic paint. It's an unusual but inspired approach that sets up a sharp contrast of styles within each piece, and makes these figures all the more mysterious and alluring.

Verginer's stunning sculptures are on display until April 2017 at the gallery Wasserman Projects Detroit Michigan, as part of the After Industry show, also featuring Norwegian painter Christer Karlstad, and Michigan-based photographer Jason DeMarte.