Biography

Swiss and Italian visual artist, graphic designer and art director. Milena (1979) lives and works in Vevey, Switzerland.

After over a decade as a designer and art director in agencies across Switzerland and abroad, she founded her own studio, KANULART in 2012. Self-taught, she gradually moved toward visual arts, drawing on her design background to develop a distinctive formal language rooted in imperfection, rhythm, and subtle tension.

Since 2023, her work has been shown in group, duo and solo exhibitions in Switzerland and abroad, marking a transition from paper-based compositions to spatial and three-dimensional explorations.

Her journey reflects an ongoing dialogue between design and contemporary art, shaped by an intuitive process, a growing engagement with spatial experience and perception, and a conscious ecological sensitivity.

Black and white photo of a woman with glasses looking through a glass window, with reflections and a blurred background.

Artistic Vision

Download the detailed portfolio in English or French (June 2025 version).

A work that explores the tensions between control and surrender, and imperfection as a source of inspiration.

Influenced by my autoimmune condition, which causes tremors, I work with gestures that resist control. Each line drawn becomes a trace of presence, of effort, of vulnerability. I do not seek to correct the imperfect, but to integrate it — to let it breathe within structures, creating spaces where fragility coexists with precision.

Rooted in a minimalist visual language, my compositions embrace repetition, negative space, and geometric simplicity. But unlike a systematic or industrial minimalism, my approach allows for softness — an organic instability within the grid. Inspired by the language of minimal art, I extend this tradition by embracing imperfection as a poetic counterpoint. In this way, balance becomes dynamic, and rhythm becomes an echo of the body.

My work is part of a broader reflection on how we relate to fragility, rhythm, and spatial awareness — individually and collectively. Through forms that appear calm but are charged with subtle tension, I explore how repetition, silence, and restraint can become tools of quiet resistance. It is an ecological posture as much as an aesthetic one — one that values what is already there, what is minimal, what is enough.

In my recent series, such as Imperfections Alignées and Expanding Perspectives, I explore the thresholds between drawing and sculpture, presence and perception. Through painted wooden forms installed in dialogue with architectural or natural space, I seek to create contemplative encounters — where viewers are invited to slow down, shift their gaze, and inhabit the in-between.

My process remains intuitive, but deeply intentional — each element is positioned with care, allowing the composition to hold space for silence and breath. In a world shaped by precision and acceleration, I choose to celebrate irregularity, stillness, and the generative power of imperfection.

A woman with long dark hair and glasses, dressed in black, is leaning on a wooden desk with her hand on a rotary phone. The desk holds a small potted plant, a candle holder, and a phone. There is a wooden chair in front of the desk and a blanket underneath. The scene is in a room with plain light-colored walls and a wooden floor.

Exhibitions

March 29-31, 2024 >
Group show, The Holy Art Gallery, Barcelona (ES)
The Holy Art Magazine, Issue 1 - June 24, page 56

May 1-31, 2024 >
Group show, Cipriarte Gallery, Venezia (IT)

June 13-16, 2024 >
Group show, ARTEXPO BASEL2024, Basel (CH)

July 1-31, 2024 >
Group show, Nicoleta Gallery, Berlin (DE)

September 5-7, 2024 >
Group show, 2x10Hz, Popup31, Vevey (CH)

November 8-23, 2024 >
Solo show, Imperfections Alignées, Galerie Lac, Vevey (CH)

November 30-1/December 2024 >
Live Painting, Imperfections Oniriques, Ultra Noël Nr. 26, Vevey (CH)

13.03-26.06 2025 >
Solo show, Expanding Perspectives, Mosaic Room, Vevey (CH)

20-28 juin 2025 >
Group show, Kollectiv 5, Galerie Karin Wunderlin, Zürich (CH)

Deux affiches rectangulaires verticales accrochées à un mur, présentant des motifs géométriques avec des bandes noires, blanches, bleues et grises.

Dedicated and regularly updated Instagram account: @milena_quattrocchi

You can purchase original compositions and fine art prints on the ART.SHOP page.

For all requests for artistic or commercial collaboration, or for orders, please fill in the contact page.