EXHIBITION: Group Residency
September 28th 2026
New York USA
During september, Il Palmerino hosted a group of 9 artists coming from U.S.A. to enjoy a two-week residency in the Tuscan hills.
The group was formed around three years ago when some of them meet during a residency in France. Each of them focused on their personal work, while enjoying nice meals and moments together every day. They finished their residency with a group exhibition in our gallery.
While Domenica Brockman usually works on minimal colorful abstract art, at Palmerino she created many landscapes and interior paintings, focusing on the light and how it hits different points at different times of the day. She also found a connection in the simplicity of the continuation of black paint on the paper and continued this theme for multiple of her works there.
It was fascinating to see how each artist could look at the same statues, trees, and places and translate them into entirely different expressions. In conversation, they opened up about the inspirations, doubts, and desires that lead each project.
Miles Ladin, artist and "provocateur", brought from home pages of literature books to paint on it his critics on modern life. Social commentary made with humor, and, as he says "pop art with contemporary ideas of human folly and how wonderful and stupid humanity is, we have a beautiful planet but throw the Coca-Cola in the water (ocean)".
For Lewis Pell, the residency was “beyond great.” As an environmentalist, he wanted to explore how the Tuscan landscape changes over time. Alongside landscape work, he created a series of cow paintings and a sculpture. At Palmerino, he set out to cultivate a looser style, letting himself be freer with the paint while keeping his focus on the environment. His environmental background helped him connect with the land and look more closely at the cattle industry and its effects on the ecosystem.
Sann Sann Lam, on the other hand, came to Il Palmerino without a plan, as a way to unwind and loosen up her brain, allowing herself to rest and listen. She went back to using similar mediums to those she used as a child: rice paper and Chinese calligraphy. Also Justin Hjortshoj used the residency as an introspective moment. Known for his work as a photographer, he reconnected with art in a completely different style using watercolors. The practice became a source of comfort, something steady he returned to day after day. He was also the one behind the beautiful dinners the group shared every night.
Paula De Stefanis and Adrian Spinks came to the residency together. Paula is a first-generation American from an Italian family, so the stay gave her a chance to explore her connection to Italian villages. Her process begins when she finds a composition and takes a photo, then she returns to sketch it without looking at the photo again, as a memory exercise. She is not interested in creating an exact image but to enter in the meditative state of painting. Adrian, a photographer, has been researching old-style cameras and learning to develop his own film. He was getting ready to set up his own darkroom back home, so the residency has shaped what comes next for his work as well.
Paula Swett is a textile artist who usually works on a large scale. During her residency at Palmerino, she turned to a smaller one, drawing on the lush surroundings and using only materials found in nature, like stones, sticks, and colors made from plants. Each object she chose caught her attention and became part of a conversation with stories from earlier lives. The process was deeply ritualistic, and it gave a voice to things that usually go unnoticed.
It was a pleasure to host this group at Palmerino. Each artist found a different voice and expression into the same place, and we are grateful to have shared in their work and having such a meaningful conversations with each of them.
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