Von Buren Contemporary is thrilled to present Contrappunto, a duo exhibition by Rome-based artists Simona Gasperini and Giulio Rigoni. The show opens with a vernissage on Saturday, November 8 and Sunday, November 9, 2025, from 18:00 to 21:30, and remains on view through November 27.
The title, Contrappunto, translates to “Counterpoint,” a fitting description of the artists’ dialog—two distinct yet harmoniously interwoven practices that invite a festive, pre-Christmas mood.
Simona Gasperini. Gasperini’s practice centers on silent, static collages that unfold in a celestial atmosphere. Her work blends painting, drawing, photography, and writing, incorporating hand-cut images and fragments of text sourced from antique books, magazines, old photo albums, and forgotten archives. The result is a poetic convergence of time, memory, and the past rendered in ethereal, immobile figures that invite slowness and reflection amidst our visually saturated era.
A graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome, Gasperini trained in sculpture but has developed a distinctive approach to collage. Her dreamy, surreal installations are deeply poetic, exploring themes of time, memory, and the past. Through ethereal figures and delicate textures, she conveys a longing for stillness in a world overwhelmed by rapid imagery.
Giulio Rigoni. Rigoni’s paintings depict figures in movement—playing instruments, dancing, or caught in ritual-like procession. His work channels a timeless, festive dimension, with an emphasis on liveliness within a medieval-inspired imaginary. Using a luminous, vibrant palette, Rigoni returns to his signature technique of oil on wood with gold leaf, creating scenes that feel both historical and newly minted.
Born in Rome in 1976, Rigoni is a self-taught artist whose unmistakable style places viewers in a two-dimensional realm where stillness and architectural planes recall late medieval painting. His invented sitters and imagined settings evoke an imaginary golden age, reinterpreted through a contemporary lens.
Contrappunto positions Gasperini and Rigoni in a constructive dialogue, foregrounding how two distinct modes of making—one contemplative and textual, the other kinetic and visual—can coexist in a single exhibition space. The pairing invites viewers to navigate the resonance between stillness and motion, memory and immediacy, fragility and vitality. The result is a mood that anticipates the holiday season with a sense of wonder and reciprocity between two generations and two approaches of art making.
Photo credits: Von Buren Contemporary
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