Filippo Moroni Italian, b. 1996

Filippo Moroni is an emerging Italian artist whose work is situated at the intersection of sculpture, wall object, and post-painterly abstraction. Born in 1996 in Castiglione del Lago, Italy, Moroni belongs to a generation of artists for whom material process functions not as a means of representation, but as a form of thinking. His practice is grounded in the sustained investigation of compression, containment, and surface as material states that register time, pressure, and resistance.

Moroni works primarily with polyurethane foam, chenille velvet, and wood. These materials are selected not for symbolic association, but for their capacity to absorb force and retain deformation. Through pressing, layering, and fixing soft matter against rigid support structures, Moroni produces works that hold tension in a resolved and stable form. The resulting surfaces are marked by folds, striations, and accumulations that neither depict nor narrate, but remain as residues of action.

Central to his practice is the ongoing Schiacciato series, initiated as a systematic exploration of compression as a sculptural condition. Across varying formats and scales, these works maintain a consistent logic: pressure is applied, sustained, and held. Rather than emphasizing contrast or focal points, Moroni distributes force evenly across the surface, allowing rhythm and density to emerge through repetition and subtle deviation. Softness is not opposed to structure, but integrated into it, resulting in works that oscillate between tactile immediacy and formal restraint.

Moroni’s approach is informed by sculptural minimalism and post-painterly abstraction, yet departs from both by foregrounding material vulnerability and tactility. His wall-based works operate neither as reliefs nor as paintings, but as objects that occupy a threshold between image and structure. The absence of overt gesture or expressive excess positions his work within a broader European discourse concerned with material presence, reduction, and the ethics of form.

In 2025, Moroni presented Velvet Rage, a solo exhibition at ABC-ARTE ONE OF in Milan, curated by Domenico de Chirico. The project marked a concentrated moment within his practice, foregrounding the physical and perceptual intensity of his material investigations. Through works characterized by compressed surfaces and dense chromatic presence, the exhibition articulated a heightened engagement with containment, vulnerability, and restraint. Rather than shifting toward narrative or symbolism, Velvet Rage reinforced Moroni’s commitment to material process as a primary site of meaning, situating his work within a contemporary sculptural discourse attentive to surface, pressure, and embodied perception.

He completed his artistic education at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera in Milan. Since then, Moroni has presented his work in solo and group exhibitions in Italy and internationally, including exhibitions at ABC-ARTE in Milan and institutional project spaces. In 2026, his work is presented at Buysse Gallery in Knokke as part of DUO ACCESS, situating his practice within a dialogue on material restraint and perceptual depth

Moroni lives and works in Milan, where his practice continues to develop through serial production, focused research, and a sustained engagement with material process as a critical and formal language.