Advocating for a more measured approach to contemporary creation, its activities are based in Angles-sur-l’Anglin, on the southern edge of the Loire Valley. Villa Atrata is deeply intertwined with the river Anglin and its Middle-Age chapel, which appears as an enigmatic fragmented architecture carefully repurposed for viewing art in direct contact with nature.

Gil Presti founded Villa Atrata in 2022, following twelve years in New York, where he worked with Larry Gagosian, and subsequently co-founded Campoli Presti gallery in London and Paris. For two decades, Campoli Presti presented exhibitions by historical figures such as Martin Barré, Marcel Broodthaers, Sarah Charlesworth, William Eggleston, Michael Krebber, Louise Lawler, Michelangelo Pistoletto and Franz West. Contemporary artists Katherine Bradford, Liz Deschenes, Rochelle Feinstein, Jutta Koether, Scott Lyall, Nick Mauss, Amy Sillman, Cheyney Thompson, John Miller, Eileen Quinlan, Blake Rayne, Reena Spaulings formed the core of its programme.

Villa Atrata’s first iteration began with an invitation to German-American artist Nick Mauss. Subsequent guests included Dustin Hodges, Guillaume Dénervaud, Sophie Reinhold, Nino Kapanadze, Will Sheldon, and Alexander Tovborg.