The Nellimya: light art exhibition started life in 2007 when the Antonelli husband and wife team put their passion to work. The exhibition venue, which is still located in Piazza Riforma 9, in the heart of Lugano, is a space devoted primarily to Light Art.

Another project was also launched just recently: the LAB_Oratorium is an artist-in-residence programme focusing on research and creativity. When works are made in this context, they are subsequently put on show.

The artists are chosen by the founders from an array of both established successful artists and up-and-coming new hopefuls on the international art scene.

The presentations of the exhibitions on the project’s agenda, together with collateral events for the year 2013-2014, are curated and edited by art critics, poets and writers.

The works on show are for sale and in some cases can also be hired.

The Nellimya architecture office commissions the artists featuring in its multiple-year selection to create custom pieces for its individual projects. The aim is to integrate art and architecture already in the phase prior to execution and in the execution itself, so that the artworks proposed are also remunerative and can be financed by being included in the calculations for a mortgage, as part of the real estate property entered in the land register.

Periodically, once every three years, the founders present the purpose-chosen selections of their growing private collection to the general public.