Join us on Thursday, October 8, 2026 at the Civitella Castle for Presentations by Visual Arts Fellows Thiago Martins de Melo and Ryan Villamael. Reserve your spot below or tune in to our livestream on Instagram @CivitellaRanieri.
6:00 PM CEST Welcome Cocktail
6:15 PM CEST/12:15 PM EDT Presentations
Visual artist with a master’s degree in psychology, Thiago Martins de Melo works with painting, sculpture, installation, and animation. His visual language combines different media in visually dense compositions, with an emphasis on the materiality of painting. Using painting as a starting point his canvases or objects—usually of large dimensions—narrate battles, syncretic rites, and epiphanies, approaching the genre of historical painting and collage. Moving between expressionist and realist techniques, his works incorporate volume, combat objects, mass circulation products, and moving images.
Ryan Villamael is an artist based in Los Baños whose practice explores paper as a sculptural medium. Through meticulous paper-cutting, he engages with history, collective memory, and the layered relationships between nature, domestic space, and the urban landscape. A recipient of the CCP Thirteen Artists Award (2021), Villamael has exhibited internationally, including at Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin; The Armory Show, New York; Palais de Tokyo, Paris; Para Site, Hong Kong; and Tai Kwun Contemporary, Hong Kong.