The Artist

I grew up in the chaotic buzz of Milan; You know, that city where everyone's always rushing but somehow still stops for an espresso.

I studied design at this top-notch school here, the kind where professors grill you on everything from color theory to why a chair matters. Graduated with a solid degree, landed gigs in the commercial world, packaging, ads, that sort of thing. But it started feeling like I was just polishing someone else's ideas, churning out safe, shiny things that didn't leave a mark on me.

Op art grabbed me like a fever dream. Those optical illusions that mess with your head, making flat lines pulse and colors vibrate, it's like the artist's evil twin of a magic trick. I got hooked experimenting with digital pieces first. Wild, looping patterns on my screen that felt electric but trapped, like they were begging to escape the pixels.

That's when 3D printing crashed into my life. I'd print, layer by layer, watching flat illusions turn into tangible objects you could hold, turn, and watch warp right in your hands.

Now, everything I make is a one-off—one, no copies, because why dilute the magic? In the studio, it's messy trial and error: sketches on napkins, failed prints that end up as coasters, endless tweaks until the geometry clicks. The sculptures catch light in sneaky ways, their shapes interlocking and fooling you into thinking they're moving when they're dead still.

FAQs

What do you love most about creating art?

Art is the purest form of expression I know. I love that you can start with absolutely nothing, just an idea or a fleeting moment, and turn something others might overlook into something magical. What fascinates me even more is how many languages art speaks: painting, sculpture, music, light… each one reaches inside us in a different way. A single song can make you cry, dance, remember, or feel completely alive. That emotional power never stops amazing me.

Can you walk us through your creative process?

Everything begins digitally, in 3D software, where the piece exists only as light and movement on a screen. I spend most of my time perfecting how the object moves when you walk past it playing with textures, shaders, and light behavior until the illusion feels alive. Once I’m happy, I slice the 3D model into thousands of ultra-thin layers, print them, clean each one by hand, and carefully assemble them onto the canvas. The final artwork is physical, but the motion only reveals itself when you move around it.

What skill has been most valuable in your career as an artist?

Versatility. Being able to jump between disciplines: 3D modeling, rendering, printing, electronics, carpentry, lighting design, is what lets me say “yes” to almost any idea. A client once fell in love with a neon-looking render I made. At the time I had no idea how to actually build it with real LEDs and 3d printing, but I figured it out step by step. The final piece looked exactly like the render, and the client was over the moon. That ability to learn whatever is needed in the moment has opened every door I have.

Which three books would you recommend to anyone curious about perception, nature, and time?

These three changed how I see the world:

  • The Doors of Perception – Aldous Huxley A mind-bending little book that feels like the literary twin of Op-Art. It explores how we can completely shift reality just by changing the way we perceive. Perfect for anyone who loves optical illusions and altered states of seeing.

  • De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things) – Lucretius Written over 2,000 years ago, yet it explains atoms, the universe, and natural laws through poetry so beautiful it still feels revolutionary. Lucretius proved you can be scientifically rigorous and soul-stirringly poetic at the same time.

  • The Order of Time – Carlo Rovelli Modern physics written like poetry. Rovelli makes the most complex ideas about time feel intimate and wondrous.