Laura Villani at Sala Biffi: “Anatomy of Contemplation,” an intimate journey through landscape, memory, and vision

From December 6, 2025 to January 10, 2026, Sala Biffi opens its doors to Anatomy of Contemplation, the new exhibition by Laura Villani curated by Chiara Cardini.

Laura Villani, Sempre nuovo è il giorno, 2025

In this intimate space—almost a small reading room suspended in time—the Pavia-born artist presents twenty-four new works on paper: a visual diary, an imaginary Grand Tour where the most ancient past meets familiar objects from the present.

Villani works with pastel on fine paper, each sheet prepared with a different acrylic ground, as if every piece were an independent page yet still part of a single narrative. The palette is minimal and understated, illuminated by delicate highlights or by sudden iridescent accents. Her drawing—precise yet intuitive—becomes the tool through which the artist explores the deep relationship between humanity and nature.

The title of the exhibition suggests that contemplation may indeed have a form, an inner architecture that Villani invites viewers to explore. In her suspended landscapes, classical ruins, temples, and marble fragments dialogue with domestic elements—chandeliers, armchairs—creating poetic short circuits. In The Song of Orpheus, for instance, the columns of a temple stand before a white mountain, evoking a mythical elsewhere; while in The Dialogue of Days, still waters, ancient architecture, and a soft light source coexist in meditative harmony.

Laura Villani, Vestale, 2025

Among the most emblematic works, Each Day Is Always New stages the hand of the Colossus of Constantine beside a modern armchair perched on a precarious rock: a disorienting encounter that transforms archaeology into contemporary experience. It is in these unexpected juxtapositions that Villani crafts her reflection—a passage between what endures and what changes, between the visible and the invisible, between what we know and what we only sense.

The works become spaces of silence and revelation, where the landscape is not merely a backdrop but a mental territory in which memory, desire, and spirituality converge. They invite us to pause, observe, and allow ourselves to be guided into a suspended time.

Laura Villani, il canto di Orfeo, 2025

The exhibition is also an opportunity to rediscover the artist’s trajectory. After a musical past and a long experience with printmaking, Villani has in recent years found in drawing and painting the most complete expression of her research. Her works, now included in major public collections and museums, confirm a refined poetics capable of blending classical themes with contemporary sensibilities.

Galleria Biffi Arte

P.zza sant'antonino - via chiapponi, 39, Piacenza

Date

6 dicembre – 10 gennaio 2026