GÜNTER UMBERG
ELISABETH VARY
Current Public Exhibition
Villa Pisani Bonetti
Vicenza
Italy
26 Jun – 18 Oct 2026
On Friday 26 June 2026, Villa Pisani Bonetti will inaugurate an exhibition curated by Francesca Pola, featuring Günter Umberg (Bonn, 1942) and Elisabeth Vary (Cologne, 1940), in which selected works will be presented to dialogue with this architectural masterpiece by Andrea Palladio: an extraordinary place which, in its proactive relationship with its historical identity open to comparison with contemporary creativity, offers visitors unprecedented coordinates of experience. A unique exhibition that aims to connect the past and the present through a new interpretation. The works of Günter Umberg and Elisabeth Vary fit with rigour and sensitivity into the spaces of Palladio's Villa, establishing This is a unique, intertwined dialogue presented within the historic walls of the prestigious Palladian villa, where the works of two German artists, Günter Umberg and Elisabeth Vary, come together in an exhibition of extraordinary intensity. This is not simply an exhibition, but an original experience, in which the exceptional nature of Renaissance architecture intertwines with the power and depth of the artistic research of the two protagonists. The project conceived by the artists themselves is characterised as an investigation into the relationship between work and space, between stability and precariousness, between colour and form. Their works merge in a continuous exchange with the environment, generating a tension between matter, light and architecture. Günter Umberg's chromatic bodies, radiating with vibrant, material colour, are grafted into the rooms of the villa, dialoguing with their history and with the contemporary world. The artist conceives and organises them in sequences and articulations, so that each work is placed in a specific space and can establish a unique and unrepeatable bond with it and with those who walk through it. The pictorial surface, constructed through the superimposition of numerous layers of pigment bound by resin, generates an intense and pulsating chromatic material, in which brightness and vibration materialise an extraordinary tension between corporeality and spatiality. A different dialogue between the environment and works of art can also be found in the work of Elisabeth Vary. The objects she creates, often composed of distinct but intimately connected elements, develop in a continuous dialogue not only with the space, but also with the visitor. Shaped by hand and born from a physical relationship with the materiality of paper, her forms require the viewer's active involvement: they invite us to move around them, explore their volumes, discover their multiple perspectives and investigate their skilful use of colour. The seemingly fragile material acquires a solid and vibrant presence, transforming itself into a three-dimensional object capable of occupying space with determination. Here too, colour becomes the protagonist and structural element that defines form, rhythm and intensity. The exhibition unfolds between the villa's interiors and a new installation designed specifically by Umberg for the garden. The artist is no stranger to creating structures and pathways that integrate into museum, exhibition or monumental contexts, offering the public a visual and physical experience closely connected to the space. The installation consists of two pairs of angular walls on a 70-centimetre-high base, placed opposite each other in a dynamic intertwining pattern, without ever touching. These structures invite visitors to explore the space, to observe the interior without being able to access it, establishing a physical and perceptive relationship with the material. In a continuous interplay between interior and exterior, closed and open, visible and invisible, the gaze is guided, drawn closer and pushed away, stimulating a new awareness of the relationship between the work and its environment. Like a building parallel to Villa Pisani, it echoes the historical and architectural identity of Palladio's site in the present. The relationship between the works of the two artists is particularly significant. Umberg and Vary share not only the experience of this exhibition, but also a common path of life and research, based on dialogue, support and mutual esteem. Their poetics, apparently distant, reveal profound affinities in their sensitivity towards space, matter and colour. The result is an intense, emotional and visceral experience that engages the visitor in a direct confrontation with the work and the place that hosts it. A bilingual catalogue dedicated to the work of Günter Umberg and Elisabeth Vary will be published to accompany the exhibition, featuring an essay by Francesca Pola and previously unpublished accounts by the authors collected by Giorgia Maroni, images of the works and updated biographical and bibliographical notes. Villa Pisani in Bagnolo di Lonigo, designed by Andrea Palladio in 1541 upon his return from his first trip to Rome and built between 1544 and 1545, is probably the most representative work of his early career, marking the beginning of his collaboration with the Venetian Republic. Inspired by the monumentality of imperial Rome, Villa Pisani represented Venice's power over the mainland: a residence that was both representative and habitable, it controlled the surrounding agricultural land, while its position on the river connected it to the Serenissima for the transport of people and goods. According to the original design, the villa was to have two main façades: the first facing the river, which is still intact, and the other facing the countryside, which is partially unfinished.
Learn more about
Photo
- Bruno Bani, Milano
- Günter Umberg
- Courtesy Associazione Culturale Villa Pisani Contemporary Art, Bagnolo di Lonigo, Courtesy A arte Invernizzi, Milano
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