Vicini

For over three years, Roberto and Anna have shared a studio — not as collaborators, but as neighbors. Two artists, two separate practices, one room. What you see in this exhibition grew out of that arrangement: paintings made independently, over time, that somehow ended up in conversation with each other.

They come from different worlds. Roberto grew up in Rome, formed by European art and culture. Anna was born and raised in St. Petersburg, moved to Cyprus, and eventually settled in the United States — where she also acquired an Italian surname, courtesy of her husband. Both hold PhDs, in different fields, and both ended up in the art world. That combination — rigorous training, wide-ranging curiosity, a life spent moving between places and disciplines — gave them a lot to talk about. Long painting sessions turned into long conversations about memory, identity, human psychology, and the nature of the universe. The studio became a space where ideas circulated as freely as the light.

Neither set out to influence the other. And yet, looking at the works together, something is clearly there — a kinship in color, in mood, in the way space is held or released on the canvas. Not imitation, not coincidence, but the natural result of two attentive people sharing the same walls for years.

Vicini — the Italian word for neighbors — asks a quiet question: how much of what we make belongs entirely to us? These paintings suggest that creativity is never quite as solitary as it seems, and that the presence of another person leaves its mark even when no one is trying.

Artists Bios

Anna Collevecchio is a Jersey City–based artist born in St. Petersburg, Russia. Trained in graphic arts and communication studies (PhD), her practice explores perception, time, and consciousness through process-driven painting and installation. Working across watercolor, mixed media, and luminous surfaces, she develops meditative compositions built through thousands of counted gestures, translating inner experience into structured visual fields. Collevecchio has exhibited internationally and is a resident artist at ART150, where she is an active member of the local arts community.

https://www.vecchiostudio.com/
https://www.instagram.com/vecchiostudio

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Roberto Colangeli was born and raised in Rome, Italy, where he developed an early passion for drawing and painting. Trained as a scientist, he earned a PhD in Biology from the University of Rome, La Sapienza, and later pursued advanced research and clinical training in the United States, including studies in infectious disease and psychoanalysis. Now based in the New York area as a mental health therapist, he maintains an active studio practice informed by travel, cross-cultural experience, and psychological inquiry. Roberto has exhibited internationally and is a resident artist at ART150, where he shares a studio space with Collevecchio.

https://colangeli.art/
https://www.instagram.com/colangeli_art/