Danielle Villicana

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Danielle Villicana with her "Ready-Made" at the exhibit "Sampling of Masters: From San Francisco to Los Angeles, to Rome and up until Tuscany" at Via Cavour 85 in Arezzo, Tuscany.

Danielle Villicana is an American artist, art dealer, and art collector. She was born in San Francisco, California. In 1994, she 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 1993, Danielle conducted the role of assistant to conceptual artist Eugenia Butler 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 level were present. Danielle also interned for distinguished Hollywood gallerist Jan Baum the same year.

The love for the Renaissance took her to Italy in the fall of 1994 where she studied at leading Florentine atelier, from Charles Cecil Studios to The Florence Academy, to the studio of Master Silvestro Pistolesi in 1996. She also studied printmaking with Sweitlan Kracyzna and Santa Reparata International School of Art. Afterward, she frequented the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence (Accademia di Belle Arti Firenze) from 1997 to 1998, and in the same year learned the techniques of fresco painting at the school Vainella of Leonetto Tintori in Prato.

In the summer of 1998, she returned to the United States to work for Treadway Industries in Las Vegas, Nevada, as well as with Saltman Art in Burbank, 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 from1999 until 2000.

In June 2001 she 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 Academy of Fine Arts in Florence (Accademia di Belle Arti Firenze), and soon after transferred to the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome (Accademia di Belle Arti Roma), and began working in the art department of production designer Francesco Frigeri at Cinecittà, where she interned from 2002 to 2003 working on Mel Gibson's film The Passion of the Christ.

She continued her plastic and pictorial research, veering towards abstraction. Soon after she obtained her diploma in painting with the highest honors in 2006 from the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome (Accademia di Belle Arti Roma), completing her studies with a thesis on sgraffito fresco painting.

In 2010, Danielle opened a contemporary art gallery, the Villicana D'Annibale Galleria D'Arte, in the historical center of Arezzo, Tuscany, immediately becoming a favored meeting place for Italian and foreign artists. In 2013 she closed the gallery and opened another project dedicated to contemporary art, Via Cavour 85.

In 2015 Danielle was awarded a "Premio Toscana Cultura" by Florentine journalist Fabrizio Borghini for her excellence in promoting contemporary art.

Expanding internationally, in 2016 Danielle founded Villicana D'Annibale, Inc., an international contemporary art gallery and artists agency headquartered in Pasadena, California with unità locale in Arezzo, Italy.

Since 1994 she has participated in numerous solo and group exhibits in Italy and the United States. Her works may be found in private and public collections in the US and Italy.

Danielle currently divides her time between her studio in Florence and Arezzo, Italy, (VI DA Studios), and Los Angeles, California organizing exhibits, publications, and events for artists.