Ugo Nespolo on display in Verbania: sixty years of art and experimentation at Villa Giulia

From May 17 to September 28, 2025, Villa Giulia in Verbania welcomes Universo Nespolo, an anthological exhibition dedicated to Ugo Nespolo (Mosso, 1941). The exhibition, curated by Sandro Parmiggiani and organized by the City of Verbania, presents about one hundred works tracing sixty years of the artist’s career, including experimentation, irony and constant innovation.

From painting to film, from photography to ceramics, from polychrome woods to artist’s books, Nespolo has always transcended the traditional boundaries of art, choosing to contaminate his language with unconventional realms. His desire to bring art into life has resulted in an ongoing research, involving collaborations with companies and realities outside the art system, in the belief that art should interact with the everyday.

An itinerary between arte povera and Pop art

The anthological exhibition develops through an itinerary that traverses the main phases of Nespolo’s production, from the influences of the historical avant-gardes to the most recent experiments. The itinerary starts from the 1960s, when the artist confronted Futurism and Dadaism before approaching Pop art andArte Povera. It was precisely towards the latter that, towards the end of the decade, Nespolo took a critical stance, elaborating the Fogginia cycle: works made with precious materials such as ebony, silver and alabaster.

The artist’s inexhaustible experimental drive is reflected in the rooms devoted to number and logic, themes that over the years would lead him to work on the golden section, large drawings on dusting paper and works in ceramics and inlaid polychrome wood. There is also a section devoted to Murano glass creations, made in collaboration with the historic Barovier & Toso workshop.

New York, opera and experimentation.

An entire room houses photographs taken by Nespolo in New York, where he stayed for a long time. The images document in particular the areas south of Manhattan, the heart of the art scene in the 1970s and 1980s, when avant-garde galleries transformed the neighborhood into a nerve center for contemporary art. The exhibition also devotes space to the artist’s scenographic production, with sketches and models of sets and costumes made for the opera house on commissions from institutions of international prominence, from New York to Paris, from Rome to other cities.

The exhibition is completed with a selection of rare artist’s books and a room entirely reserved for the Dark Side series, consisting of large canvases characterized by a fragmented narrative. To crown the exhibition project, on the terrace of Villa Giulia stands the inflatable sculpture Ubu, a symbol of the optimism and ironic attitude with which Nespolo faces the challenges of the present. The exhibition also extends to the Museo del Paesaggio in Verbania, where three works by Nespolo will be on display. The institution, which has always been linked to the enhancement of the Lake Maggiore area, thus becomes part of the cultural and artistic promotion project that accompanies Universo Nespolo. Accompanying the exhibition will be a catalog published by Moebius Edizioni. The official media partner of the event is Sky Arte, which will follow the exhibition with in-depth coverage and dedicated content.

Notes on the artist

Ugo Nespolo was born in Mosso and trained at the Albertina Academy of Fine Arts in Turin, later graduating in Modern Literature. In the 1960s he joined the Schwarz Gallery in Milan, alongside artists such as Duchamp and Picabia. His first exhibition Macchine e Oggetti Condizionali, curated by Pierre Restany, was part of the research that Germano Celant would call “Arte Povera.” After moving to New York, he absorbed the city’s cosmopolitan energy and the allure of Pop Art, while in the 1970s he approached Conceptual and Poverist art. In 1967, thanks to his meeting with Jonas Mekas and Andy Warhol, he became one of the pioneers of Italian experimental cinema, collaborating with Mario Schifano and involving artists such as Baj, Pistoletto and Fontana. Among his works is Revolving Doors, inspired by a text given to him by Man Ray. His films are shown in prestigious venues such as the Centre Pompidou and the Tate Modern.

With Enrico Baj he founded the Istituto Patafisico Ticinese and, with Ben Vautier, organized Fluxus concerts, including Les Mots et les Choses, the movement’s first Italian event. While fascinated by the American avant-garde, he maintained firm ties to European art, drawing inspiration from Fortunato Depero and Futurism, with whom he shared the idea of art permeating every aspect of life. Hence his interest in design, advertising graphics, illustration and theatrical set design. Experimentation with materials is central to his journey, leading him to work with wood, metal, glass, ceramics and textiles. Convinced that the artist must be an intellectual, he combines his artistic practice with an intense theoretical and writing activity. In 2019, the University of Turin awarded him an Honorary Degree in Philosophy. His work reflects on the nature of art itself: the object, extrapolated from its everyday context, takes on a new identity and value.

Ugo Nespolo on display in Verbania: sixty years of art and experimentation at Villa Giulia

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