22.11.2025 - 28.02.2026
Olga Lepri
Conchglie. Corpi Mirabili
Galleria Marignana Arte | Marignana Project
Publication with text by Jonathan Molinari
Marignana Arte is pleased to present the solo exhibition of Olga Lepri, Conchiglie. Corpi mirabili, opening on November 22, 2025 at Marignana Project. The exhibition comes as a natural continuation of the dialogue between the gallery and the artist, already initiated with the recent group shows Aldilà sarà at Spazio Berlendis and Apparizioni and Préludes at Marignana Arte, and is part of the program of Marignana Project as a space for in-depth research and experimentation. In Conchiglie. Corpi mirabili Olga Lepri reflects on the theme of the shell: a small natural architecture that contains within itself infinite possibilities of interpretation. Through painting and drawing, the artist explores the shell as an archetypal form, a metaphorical body, and a figure in growth, suspended between microcosm and infinity. Its spiral structure, mother-of-pearl, reliefs, and proportions present themselves as metaphors of an inner journey, as portals of imagination, and as reminders of the profound connection between the human body and nature. In the works on view emerges an inquiry that intertwines generativity and chaos, myth and perception, philosophy of time and poetic vision. At the center of the artist’s reflection lies the dual meaning of the “cochlea”: on the one hand, the shell as a spiral form, on the other, the organ of hearing that connects us to the world of sound. In this sense, the shell becomes a bridge between interiority and nature, between sensory experience and abstraction, because — as the artist has stated — “we remain human, and in continuity with nature, as long as it still speaks to us through anthropomorphic forms and metaphors.”
The exhibition is complemented by two limited editions presented at Marignana Arte. Each print is part of a series of 15 copies, in which every piece is unique and distinct from the others, as each has been hand-finished by the artist with ink, tempera, and watercolor.
“In the works of Olga Lepri, the shell takes on different meanings each time, as if every piece revealed a new nuance of its secret language. In Mother-of-pearl (The Colour of Blindness) (2023) and L ’estraniante (2025), the iridescent light of mother-of-pearl becomes psychic matter — a symbol of the feminine and of inner perception; the surface both reflects and holds, like a thought that never ceases to change. With La Goccia del Diluvio (2025), the theme shifts toward the memory of water and of origins: here the shell appears as a living relic, the seal of life’s first breath. In Naufraghi (2025), fragments of bodies emerge and dissolve within the shell, like memories resurfacing from time, while in the drawings of the Corpi Mirabili series, the shell is studied as an autonomous architecture — a synthesis of proportions, harmonies, and correspondences that reveal nature’s constructive wisdom. In the archipelago of shells imagined by Olga Lepri for the project, we also find works such as Pensiero (2025) — where the spiral merges with the human profile, transforming the natural form into a mental image, a face seemingly folding upon itself, immersed in sleep and reflection — and Vertebrale (2025), a work in which the shell becomes body: the curve of a bare back turns into a marine relief, in an intimate dialogue between anatomy and nature. ”
Excerpt from the exhibition publication with a text by Jonathan Molinari
