Yuri Catania’s Atelier
at CasaGalleria.ART,
Rovio (Val Mara)

At the foot of Monte Generoso, in the historic village core of Rovio (Val Mara), CasaGalleria.ART is more than a destination—it’s a lived practice of art. This is where the home opens up to share the creative process, the encounter with the artist, and an ongoing conversation between art and nature. 

 

 

A place that flows into the work

Rovio is an old hillside village of narrow lanes, stone paths, traditional fountains, and historic façades—an architectural rhythm that invites slowness and attention. 

Surrounding it, the landscape of Val Mara becomes daily material: woods, trails, sharp seasonal shifts, and constantly changing light. It is within this setting—“between art and nature”—that Yuri Catania chose to anchor his creative laboratory. 

 

Then there is Monte Generoso itself: a protective presence and a symbolic horizon. The mountain suggests verticality, breath, and distance. From the summit, the panorama is famously expansive, and sunrise and sunset turn sky and land into waves of color—an everyday reminder that light can carry meaning, atmosphere, and narrative. 

 

 

The garden: botany, time, imagination

CasaGalleria.ART was born from a shared choice: a 1700s house with a garden and views over Lake Lugano, envisioned as an art residence—one whose doors also open to the public for a direct, unfiltered experience. 

Here, the garden is not decoration. It’s a living archive of shapes and colors, a training ground for observation, and a discipline of time. It fuels the floral imagery that runs through Yuri’s universe—flowers as energy, fragility, and resilience—until nature itself becomes a visual grammar carried into painting, collage, photography, and installation.

 

Rovio is also a community with an artistic memory: the village has hosted projects that intertwine identity and territory, such as The Cats of Rovio, a major open-air paste-up exhibition that turned houses and streets into a distributed gallery. Over time, “the cats of Rovio” have become a warm local symbol—daily presence and metaphor at once: independence, curiosity, and village life, all feeding the human tone of the place.

 

 

A true creative lab: where everything is made

Yuri Catania’s atelier functions as a complete production ecosystem. This is where ideas begin—and where the core stages of the work actually happen. Materials and tools coexist like a contemporary workshop: surfaces and techniques are tested; wood is shaped; paintings are made; objects are built; fine cotton paper prints are produced; negatives are developed in the darkroom; photographs are mounted on aluminum plates and often framed with handmade wooden strips. 

It’s a practice where craft and technology meet: gesture and machine, slow time and precision, planning and surprise.

 

A crucial note: many works take shape at night. Yuri describes the night hours as a time of greater creative freedom, away from daytime interference—an inner condition that resonates with his ongoing exploration of light, layered perception, and the sense of “revelation” that defines his visual world. 

 

 

CasaGalleria.ART: no borders between inside and outside

The philosophy is clear: this is not just a place to “display” art, but an environment where inside and outside constantly speak to one another. CasaGalleria.ART was conceived as a space to be shared—mixing art, nature, encounters, and the surrounding territory: waterfalls, trails, the colors and sounds of the seasons, and an idea of aesthetic experience as lived experience. 

That is why studio visits are possible, even for groups: here, a visit is not only about seeing the artworks, but stepping into the context that generates them. 

 

 

Silvia Torricelli: dialogue, direction, continuity

CasaGalleria.ART is also a two-person story. Silvia Torricelli and Yuri Catania have been partners in life and work for over twenty years. Moving to Rovio and opening their home to art was a shared decision—one that combines vision, organization, and sensitivity. 

Silvia is the presence that shapes and sustains: attentive listening, care for the experience, relationships with people and projects. In their daily dialogue, the work finds a rare balance—instinct and strategy, poetry and practicality, creative freedom and operational continuity.