Nicola Villa (Italian, b. 1976) is a painter and digital artist who explores the human condition through images drawn from everyday urban experience. His works develop suspended, introspective narratives marked by subtle tension and psychological depth. Digital media has been central to his research, evolving from a tool supporting his physical works into an autonomous language that integrates digitized materials with native digital processes.
Villa was born in Lecco and lives and works in Genoa.He has worked in the visual arts since the late 1990s, moving from painting, printmaking, and mixed media into work that blends digitized elements with digitally native processes.After graduating in Architecture from the Politecnico di Milano in 2004, he devoted himself entirely to artistic practice. In 2011, he was invited to contribute to the New Ambrosian Gospel, a cycle of illustrations commissioned for Milan Cathedral, alongside other artists.
In 2023, his work was included in the Fakewhale group release “NEW BLOOD”, presented on Objkt.That same year, he took part in “RECOLLECTION. AI AND MEMORY”, a group exhibition curated by EXPANDED.ART with The NFT Gallery in New York and London that explored artificial intelligence and human memory.He was also featured in “Tez in Japan”, an exhibition of Tezos digital art curated by Yuki Ama, in January 2023.
In 2024, Villa co-founded Visual Substance with Mauro Spagnoli, a project focused on interactive installations and live audiovisual performances.In August 2025, Visual Substance presented Datasonance with the artist cibarius, an immersive installation at Cappella Marchi in Seravezza, Italy, curated by Lorenzo Belli. During an initial pre-participatory phase, sensors including Kinect technology connected to living plants shaped a shifting soundscape and visual environment based on the audience's proximity and movement. In the live performance that followed, a piece of electronic music generated real-time visuals through algorithms and artificial intelligence.Since 2024, Villa has been a lecturer at Accademia di Belle Arti Santa Giulia in Brescia.
