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Greetings, friends, artists, art lovers, and collectors!

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Thank you for visiting my website. Please let me introduce myself.

 

My name is Danielle Villicana 

and I'm an American artist, art dealer, speaker, and collector

with a passion for the transformative power of art!

I invite you to join me on a journey of

discovery, exploration, and art inspiration!​

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Please sign up for my newsletter below

to get news directly in your email box about our exhibitions and events,

including my following companies, brands, and projects.

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VILLICANA.IT

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Our exciting news!

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VI DA Studios opened on December 12, 2023,

in Florence (Firenze) Tuscany at the following location:

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Via del Purgatorio 14r, 50122 Firenze (FI), Italy

Cell +39 338 600 5593 / +1 626 807-0626

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On April 1, 2024, another location opened in Arezzo at

Via Cavour 113, 52100 Arezzo (AR), Italy

 

The opening of these studios is part of our 450-year celebrations for

Giorgio Vasari!​

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All invitations to our exhibitions and events will be sent 

directly to your email box with creativity and love,

so please sign up at the bottom of this page and be a part of our

incredible contemporary art community.

Visit our websites and follow and share with us on social media.

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We invite you to become a benefactor, patron, or member of our

International Nonprofit PARADISE FOR ARTISTS

in honor of the painter, architect & biographer 

GIORGIO VASARI and contemporary artists!

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We are organizing sensational exhibitions and events

for our beloved Giorgio Vasari.

Please join us and participate! 

There will be exhibits, conferences, an art auction,

a special dinner and much, much more.

We appreciate your interest!

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"BEATRICE CENCI & ARNALDO BOSCHERINI:

A B U S E = C H A O S  "

November 29 - December 21, 2024

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Opening Reception / Vernissage

Friday, November 29 at 6PM

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Via Cavour 85 - 52100 Arezzo (AR) Italy

Cell. +39 338 605593

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Viva l'Arte! Viva Giorgio Vasari! e Viva Arezzo!

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Grazie a tutti! Thanks, everyone, and see you soon at Via Cavour 85!

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Danielle Villicana

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A special moment with Florentine journalist Jacopo Chiostri and Artist & Art Dealer Danielle Villicana at the opening reception of Danielle Villicana: LUCE (LIGHT)

at VI DA Studios in Florence (Firenze) on September 27, 2024 - Photo © 2024 Luca Cavallini

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A LITTLE ABOUT DANIELLE'S STORY AND PASSION FOR ART

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Danielle Villicana is an American artist, art dealer, and speaker.

Danielle was born in San Francisco, California, and raised in Pasadena and Laguna Beach. She is the proud daughter of Dr. Alexander Villicana, MD, one of the world's most excellent plastic and reconstructive surgeons from Los Angeles. Danielle's mother, Margaret Sue, is a real estate broker and business mogul.

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Danielle now splits her time between Los Angeles, Arezzo, and Firenze (Florence), Tuscany in Italy.

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The Early Years

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Her life as an artist began at a young age. She was always a very crafty kid and loved playing piano and speaking French, which she commenced at the age of five, as well as cooking, gardening, drawing, and creating. Her favorite pastime was writing to famous people, sticker companies such as Mrs. Grossman's, and entering contests because she loved reaching out to people and receiving mail.

 

Danielle won her first award for drawing at age six from the Pasadena Star-News, which sent her a cash award for $5 (lots of candy money back in those days), and they published the drawing of her favorite doll in the newspaper. That was the event that got the ball rolling. She spent much of her childhood in the Huntington Gardens and the Norton Simon in Pasadena, lots of trips to the La Brea Tar Pits, LACMA, and the Southwest Museum of the American Indian in Los Angeles, and her love for art, the Indians, and culture, in general, continued to grow.

The Pasadena Symphony and seeing theater in Pasadena and Los Angeles were a part of her upbringing. She chose to pursue theater, music, and singing in high school, as well as leadership and French,

her favorite subjects.

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At eleven, she visited the magnificent city of London, Stratford-upon-Avon, the birthplace of the great playwright Shakespeare, and the mind-boggling and surreal Stonehenge on her first trip abroad with her family. It was an eye-opening trip. The tulips were in bloom, and visits to places including Buckingham Palace and the Wedgwood Factory proved decisive in directing her interests toward art and Europe. She took another trip with her school the following year and visited Spain, France, Switzerland, and Italy. Danielle made up her mind at twelve that Europe was her ultimate destination. She never went back on that decision, that dream. She went forward and seized it years later after college!

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The trip to London and visiting the home of Shakespeare fueled her interest and passion for theater. In contrast, visiting France opened her eyes to the beauty of medieval cities like Carcassonne and beautiful foods, pâté, and wine. Italy and Spain opened her eyes to art, visiting the Prado for the first time, discovering exceptional artist El Greco, visiting Venice, the balcony of Romeo and Juliet, Verona, and Milan, indeed too many beautiful experiences to note in this short introduction. It was all fantastic, especially the Swiss chocolate. A private art collection in Lugano was so memorable. She was only twelve but thoroughly captivated by all the art and architecture. Danielle dedicated most of her time for the following ten years to the same topics: music, theater, French, and art, participating in countless plays, winning numerous awards for acting, experience as a stage manager and director, and working in just about every aspect on and behind the stage. 

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Laguna Beach High School - Home of the Artists

 

At the age of thirteen, upon moving to Laguna Beach to attend high school, an event that completely changed her life, she decided to become an artist. However, she was unsure what kind, perhaps an actress, a fine artist, an international businesswoman, only time would tell. That same year, she traveled to New York City for the first time. She had her first experiences in the Big Apple, where she visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the MoMA, Carnegie Hall, Storm King Art Center, and other incredible museums. She also saw several musicals on Broadway.

 

In high school, Danielle blossomed. She was the president of the sophomore class, and in her junior year, she was the activities director for the Associated Student Body (ASB). In her Junior year, she was awarded a prestigious Women's Leadership Award, California Girl's State, where she was chosen as the one female in the junior class

to be honored and sent to Sacramento for a week to work on leadership skills with other women from high schools across California. She won the French Achievement Award. Danielle was President of the Thespians at

Laguna Beach High School. She worked for the Shakespeare Festival/LA for a few summers; they were all great experiences. She also worked for the Recreation Department of Laguna Beach for two years on the Battle of the Bands musical event. In her senior year, Danielle was voted in as the Associated Student Body President, 

the first female President in seven years, which was a huge honor and an enriching experience. 

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Danielle met some exciting and noted artists then, including figurative and abstract artist Vladimir Sokolov, impressionist painter Anton Sipos, and professor of Sculpture at Boston University Elbert Weinberg. They all had a profound influence on her. Thanks to meeting them and living in the art colony of Laguna Beach, filled with outstanding artists, she began to pursue visual arts.

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College Years: San Francisco and Los Angeles

 

Upon graduation from Laguna Beach High School in 1990, Danielle moved to San Francisco, her natal city, in search of her roots and new pastures, and studied music, singing, French, and art history for a year at San Francisco State University, taking a break from the theater. In the summer of 1991, Danielle was awarded a scholarship from the French Consulate of California to study in Alsace, France, for a summer workshop. She also spent a month visiting the countless museums in Paris: the Louvre, the Musée d'Orsay, the Musée Rodin, the Musee de l'Orangerie, and numerous others. She also began writing, which she very much enjoys today. The following year, she decided to return to Los Angeles and complete her studies in theater at Occidental College, as they had just built the magnificent new Keck Theater, and the stage was calling her. Danielle performed in numerous plays in College as well as directed a play in French about Molière, amongst other projects, including assistant stage managing for a professional theater group Singular Productions in Hollywood and working as an Assistant to Director Mark Burman for the film Ricky Rosen's Bar Mitzvah. 

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In 1993, Danielle had the incredible luck to meet conceptual artist Eugenia Butler and conducted the role of assistant to Eugenia on the project The Kitchen Table presented at ART/LA'93 fair, where artists of the caliber of Marina Abramovic, Carolee Schneemann, Felipe Ehrenberg and other thirty figures of international fame were present. Danielle interned for distinguished Hollywood art dealer Jan Baum the same year at the Jan Baum Gallery on La Brea. These two internships completely changed her life, opening her to the real world of contemporary art in Los Angeles and the international scene.

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Danielle graduated with a B.A. from Occidental College of Los Angeles in Art History and the Visual Arts with a minor in Theater and French in 1994. She was one class and project short of having a double major in theater, but she was itching to go. With her teacher's encouragement, she was on a plane seven days after graduation to Europe to study classical drawing and painting.  She had a burning need to see with her very own eyes the paintings she had learned in her art history classes. She had also been introduced to Giorgio Vasari by Art History Prof. Marjorie Och. She had read the Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, a book that, unbeknownst to her, would later very much influence and change her life. 

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Artist Danielle Villicana - Florence, Italy in 2003 - On top of the Cathedral Santa Maria del Fiore

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Classical Drawing and Painting in Firenze & Prato, Italy

and the Czech Republic

 

Danielle's love for the Renaissance and art history took her to Firenze (Florence), Italy in the fall of 1994. She studied at the leading Florentine atelier, from Charles Cecil Studios to The Florence Academy in 1995 to the studio of Master Silvestro Pistolesi in 1996. She studied art history and traveled all over Italy with the architect 

Prof. Andrea Canepele. He taught a small group of students from the Charles Cecil Studios art history, Italian culture, and the Italian language. They visited gorgeous cities all over Italy, including Florence, Arezzo, Pisa, Rome, Naples, Venice, Padova, Viareggio, Carrara, Pietrasanta, Ferrara, Milan, Bologna, Genova, Cortona, Lucca, Barga, Siena, Perugia, Carrara, Montalcino, Montepulciano, San Gimignano, Parma, and countless other beautiful cities. 

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Danielle also studied printmaking with Sweitlan Kracyzna and Santa Reparata International School of Art 

and mural drawing with Petr Jochman at Brno University in the Czech Republic. Afterward, she frequented the Accademia di Belle Arti Firenze (Academy of Fine Arts in Florence) from 1997 to 1998, and in the same year learned the techniques of fresco painting at the school Vainella of Leonetto Tintori in Prato. What was to be one year of studies abroad had turned into four! She considered moving to New York and getting a Master's. She even checked out NYU in person, which she liked very much, as it is in front of the Metropolitan Museum. Still, Florence was so gorgeous that she decided to stay there and study in what is universally known as one of the most magnificent cities of the world, Florentia, and study the paintings she was interested in learning about from life.

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In 1997, Danielle had her first solo exhibit in Barga, Italy. The following year, in 1998, she returned to the United States and had her second exhibition in Pasadena, California, at El Portal, curated by Susana Smith Bautista. Immediately, her paintings began to sell, and she received several portrait commissions. She officially started her career as an international artist and portrait painter.

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Sculpting and Painting in Las Vegas and Los Angeles

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In the summer of 1998, Danielle moved to Las Vegas, Nevada, and began working for the international theming company Treadway Industries, where she worked on prestigious projects, including The Venetian Hotel & Casino, Aladdin Gaming, Universal Studios Japan, Disney California Adventure, and others, as a sculptress, mural painter, and decorator from 1998 until 2000. Her duties included sculpting in the Art Department under the direction of '"Smokin'" Joe McWilliams. Several months after her arrival, she was promoted. She became part of the Sales & Marketing team, working with architects and designers, and Assistant to the CEO Peter Brake. She later founded the Mural Painting and Fresco Department, where she was the Creative Director. 

 

In Los Angeles, Danielle worked as a mural painter with Saltman Art in Burbank in 1999 on the Venetian Hotel & Casino, creating architectural trompe l'oeil decoration with an incredible team of artists, including Guerino Lovato from Venice.

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Sculpting and Film in Bracciano, Rome and Tuscany

 

At the end of these projects in Las Vegas, in June 2001, Danielle returned to Italy to work for the summer with noted American sculptor Milton Hebald at his studio in Bracciano, Rome. In the fall she resumed her studies at the Accademia di Belle Arti Firenze (Academy of Fine Arts in Florence), and soon after transferred to the Accademia di Belle Arti Roma (Academy of Fine Arts in Rome), where she studied figurative and abstract art with Prof. Costantino Baldino. Shortly after, she began working in the art department of production designer Francesco Frigeri at Cinecittà, where she interned from 2002 to 2003 on Mel Gibson's film The Passion of the Christ.

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In the meantime, Danielle continued her plastic and pictorial research, experimenting with abstraction.

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Putting Down Roots in Arezzo, Tuscany - Italy

 

Feeling the need to settle down after so much traveling around and living in big cities, Danielle decided to move to the oasis of Arezzo in 2005, ideally located between Florence and Rome, her favorite cities, and easily accessible via train to any city in Italy and thus began her project Villa Margherita a Paradise for Artists in Tuscany, named in honor of her mother, Margaret Sue. Different things had attracted her to the area, including Spanish horses. She worked with dressage expert and incredibly talented Cavaliere and Horse Trainer Silver Massarenti in Osaia near Cortona for a summer and afterward at the Pony Club at The Arezzo Equestrian Center. Honestly, a mix of horses and art attracted Danielle to Arezzo. She would like to share a little about it in this introduction because she is often asked, why Arezzo? Her first answer was, "It's a GORGEOUS city." Then, if you are a fresco lover, as is Danielle, Arezzo is the home to the frescoes of Piero della Francesca, The Legend of the True Cross. Magnificent work. Leonetto Tintori, the founder of the school where Danielle learned fresco in Prato, il Laboratorio per affresco di Vainella, did one of the restorations of these frescoes. He also discovered some Piero paintings in Sansepolcro. Due to this, Danielle has always been very connected to Piero della Francesca and has met great restorers such as Guido Botticelli and the wonderful Silvano Lazzeri. Danielle is also very fond of The Tarlati polyptych, one of her teacher's favorites, Prof. Andrea Canepele, which he shared with his students on one of our first excursions when Danielle moved to Arezzo in 1994. This masterpiece, which has recently been lovingly restored, was painted by the Italian artist Pietro Lorenzetti and is located at the church of Santa Maria della Pieve in the historical center of Arezzo. Danielle probably loves Arezzo even more for the fabulous food and, delightful people, absolutely gorgeous jewelry because it was the birth city of Giorgio Vasari, and it was the Province where Michelangelo was born, so she felt that she had found an artist's Paradise to call home. 

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Soon after, Danielle obtained her diploma in painting with the highest honors, 110 e lode, in 2006 from the Accademia di Belle Arti Roma (Academy of Fine Arts in Rome), completing her studies with a thesis on sgraffito fresco painting. She began teaching drawing, oil and acrylic painting, and buon fresco painting workshops at

Villa Margherita in the same year. She also taught the English language (ESL) privately and did Italian to English translations, which she did for the following ten years as a side hustle and a way to become a part of the community, share, and give back. She enjoyed giving her best to inspire her English students to soar and shoot for the stars. Danielle is very proud of every one of them.

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