Decades of davide groppi’s work in piacenza exhibition
A monographic exhibition dedicated to Italian light designer Davide Groppi opens in Piacenza, Italy, inside the Church of Sant’Agostino on Stradone Farnese. Titled One hour of light and curated by Marco Sammicheli, director of the Museo del Design Italiano and curator of the design sector at Triennale Milano, the show is presented by the gallery Volumnia and runs through May 26th, 2026. It traces forty years of Davide Groppi’s work, from his first lamps in the late 1980s to two new pieces unveiled for the occasion, positioning light as a material with emotional and architectural weight. The central nave of Sant’Agostino becomes the spine of the exhibition, as the designer divides the space using white, geometric volumes through freestanding architectural forms that visitors can move through.
The layout follows a sequence of rooms, where inside each volume, lamps sit or hang or fall into the space, creating pools of light that Davide Groppi describes as torches along a path. The walls are neutral, the geometry is clean, and the lamps carry all scenographic tension, and against the historical backdrop of the church – its stonework, its arched ceilings, its stored centuries – the contrast between the ancient structure and the designed light comes through. The show is structured in two parts, with the first one moving through five utopias of light. The second part traces the designer’s career, placing his forty years of work in dialogue with the architecture around them.
all images courtesy of Davide Groppi and Volumnia
Two lighting objects debut at the monographic show
The exhibition on Davide Groppi’s lighting designer introduces two new objects. VERA, a limited edition lamp produced for Volumnia, is the more theatrical of the two. The base is cylindrical aluminum, painted in amaranth red, a departure from the natural finishes Groppi typically uses. The shade is a transparent glass cone, and the bulb inside is a hologram: it appears only when the lamp is switched on. VERA produces direct, indirect, and diffuse light simultaneously, changing the character of the room depending on where the viewer is standing. UMASI, the second new piece, is presented as a preview, seen publicly for the first time during the exhibition run.
At the entrance to the exhibition, a lamp called MOON marks the threshold between the street and the interior, a border object that is neither fully inside nor outside. From there, the path moves through the nave, past decades of work that has won the Compasso d’Oro three times: for NULLA in 2014, SAMPEI in 2014, and ANIMA in 2024. Davide Groppi has said that his inspiration comes from art, ready-made objects, magic, and the desire to play. What One hour of light, presented by gallery Volumnia, makes clear is that those four sources come into view, luring in the viewers into understanding the way Davide Groppi thinks and works as they walk around the exhibition.
Less is Less
Le Foglie e Il Vento
the exhibition takes place inside the Church of Sant’Agostino on Stradone Farnese
Il Grande Blu
the exhibition traces forty years of Davide Groppi’s work