From October 5 to November 8, 2026, the Villa Clerici venue in Milan will host *La Via Astratta*, a solo exhibition by Roberto Floreani organized by GASC | Galleria d’Arte Sacra dei Contemporanei and Isorropia Homegallery, curated by Luigi Codemo. The opening is scheduled for Monday, October 5, with a special opening from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
For the spaces of GASC | Galleria d’Arte Sacra dei Contemporanei within the Villa, the artist has conceived a site-specific exhibition project, featuring works created specifically to engage with the museum’s permanent collection. The exhibition builds upon *Soglie. Tempo del prima, Tempo del poi*(Thresholds: Time Before, Time After), an exhibition created by Floreani in 2025 at the Diocesan Museum of Vicenza on the occasion of the Jubilee.
The exhibition’s title evokes the historyof Abstract Art and its evolution beginning in the early decades of the 20th century, with particular reference to the so-called “Italian Path to Abstract Art.” This journey begins in 1912 with Giacomo Balla’s *Compenetrazioni iridescenti*, continues in the 1930s in Milan through the Como Group and the artists of the Galleria del Milione, and extends to the works of artists such as Piero Dorazio and Carla Accardi. A historical and stylistic journey in which abstract exploration has maintained a constant connection with the spiritual dimension.
The exhibition brings together over twenty works, including several large-scale pieces, spanning the various phases of Floreani’s artistic exploration, from the *Ritmati* cycles to the *Costellazioni* and on to the *Soglie*. Among the works on display are also recent and previously unseen pieces, characterized by the presence of a central square that is split both in its compositional structure and in its color choices.
The exhibition showcases over forty years of the artist’s work, grounded in a complex painting technique that involves the layering of numerous layers of material—up to thirty layers—to construct geometric shapes such as circles, squares, rectangles, and ovals. The surfaces, often characterized by shades of gray and brown, are punctuated by more intense bursts of color—including reds, oranges, and the distinctive Klein Blue—creating a contrast between the textural quality of the surfaces and the precision of the geometric forms.
With *La Via Astratta*, GASC continues one of the themes that has defined its work since its inception: engaging with artists exploring the theme of the sacred through contemporary artistic languages. The Villa Clerici collection, established in the 1950s, is today one of Italy’s leading collections dedicated to 20th-century and contemporary sacred art, featuring over 3,000 works by artists such as Francesco Messina, Aldo Carpi, Floriano Bodini, Gino Severini, Felice Casorati, Giacomo Manzù, Kengiro Azuma, Aligi Sassu, Mario Raciti, and Valentino Vago.
The exhibition also renews the collaboration between GASC | Galleria d’Arte Sacra dei Contemporanei and Isorropia Homegallery, a nonprofit cultural association committed to promoting and highlighting contemporary art. The project is part of the two organizations’ shared mission to create opportunities for dialogue between contemporary artistic exploration and historical heritage, offering new interpretations of the relationship between art and the sacred in the present.
“Roberto Floreani’s work,” says GASC director Luigi Codemo, “demonstrates how pictorial abstraction, while arising from a purely analytical exploration of its own language, retains a profound spiritual tension. The painting thus becomes a threshold that leads beyond the canvas.”
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| Roberto Floreani brings his abstract work to the GASC collection in Milan |
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