THE LIGHT BETWEEN, The light that reveals matter

In the context of Fuorisalone 2026, when the city becomes an open laboratory of research and experimentation, Novacolor chooses to investigate what is not immediately visible: the interval in which light passes through matter, transforming the surface into architectural language.

Thus “The Light Between” is born, the annual concept of the San Marco Group brand that gives life to the Signature Collection 2026. The philosophy of this collection will take shape at the Novacolor Brera Showroom, set up during Fuorisalone under the artistic direction of architect Michael Vincent Uy. Not a simple exhibition, but a cultural and sensory gesture designed to engage with design professionals and international creatives, where every element becomes a narrative tool and where light and matter meet to reveal depth, imperfections, and invisible details.

The concept: light as revelation

Light does not enter through perfection: it slips into voids, unexpected spaces, into the intervals between fullness and emptiness. It is there that it reveals what would otherwise remain hidden. In “The Light Between”, light is not decoration: it is action, transforming imperfection into value and conveying substance and meaning. Every Novacolor surface thus becomes alive, to be observed and explored with the gaze, in a dialogue between touch, color, and depth.

The Signature Collection

The collection takes shape in six design pieces, each inspired by a different way in which light interacts with matter:

RADIANCE
Intense and diffused light that illuminates and enhances matter with vibrant energy.

Products: Archi+ Big, Archi+ Concrete, Metallo_Fuso (brass, copper, bronze), R-Stone (pearl and red)

GLEAM
Momentary glimmers that illuminate hidden details and surprise the eye.

Products: R-Stone (gold, green, pearl), Eclat_Wall Painting.

HIVE
A pattern of dotted reliefs that interacts with light, transforming texture into luminous details and perceptible depth.

Products: Verderame_wall painting Fondo, Metallo_Fuso (copper)

INTERLUDE
The suspended space where light filters through and reveals what was hidden.

Products: Archi+ Concrete, Novalux E

WEAVE
Fossil-like weaving, where every fiber becomes a groove that engraves the light.

Products: Archi+ Concrete, Africa

FACET
Geometric planes that capture light and return it in shifting reflections.

Products: Marmur Fine, CalceCruda Tinta a Stucco

The common thread of the photographic shots, curated by photographer Matteo Imbriani with the creative direction of the Freedot agency and styling by Studio Salaris, is the encounter between light and matter: a theme that runs through the entire collection and defines its narrative.

Novacolor at Fuorisalone

With The Light Between, Novacolor confirms its role as a cultural and sensory brand, capable of going beyond the product to offer immersive experiences. The Novacolor showroom in Brera, reinterpreted for the occasion by architect Michael Vincent Uy, thus becomes an experiential device rather than a simple exhibition space. Voids, volumes, and surfaces are designed to be read through light, which guides the experience and invites visitors to slow down, perceive, and move through the space with attention.
For Fuorisalone, the showroom takes on an almost museum-like dimension, where color intentionally gives way to matter. Surfaces become the protagonists: textures, depths, and reflections reveal the tactile dimension of Novacolor materials within a calibrated, tone-on-tone environment.
Inside the space there are six Medea seats — the Medea Chair — reinterpreted by Uy with a Metallo_Fuso finish. The structure remains unchanged, but the surface transforms its perception, showing how a material treatment can modify the character of an object.

“In the project we deliberately shifted the focus from color to matter. The showroom becomes a space where the tactile and luminous dimension of surfaces can be explored: walls, furnishings, and volumes function as material fields that react to light and construct the atmosphere of the environment.” - Arch. Michael Vincent Uy.

In this way, just as on the walls so too on the furnishings, the coating becomes the instrument through which the space takes shape and reveals itself to the visitor’s gaze.

It is not fullness that creates beauty, but what light passes through, making the invisible visible.