Manet: Return to Venice is the name of the exhibition  in the monumental rooms of the Doge’s Palace. Curated by Stéphane Guégan, with the scientific direction of Guy Cogeval and Gabriella Belli, the show includes some 80 paintings, drawings and prints, and has been planned with the special collaboration of the Musée D’Orsay in Paris, which possesses the largest number of masterpieces by this extraordinary painter.

According to its curatorial proposition, the exhibition arises from a need to undertake a critical survey of the cultural models that inspired the young Manet when he embarked on a career as painter early in life. These models, which have hitherto referred almost exclusively to the influence of Spanish painting on his art, actually included much Italian Renaissance art, as the Venetian exhibition will show: alongside his masterpieces, there will also be a series of exceptional studies inspired by great 16th-century Venetian paintings, from Titian to Tintoretto and Lotto in particular.

The exhibition layout, which guides the visitor past great masterpieces, such as Le fifre (1866), La lecture (1865-73), Le balcon (1869), Portrait de Mallarmé (ca. 1876) drawn from his entire artistic life, opens with a series of free interpretations of Old Masters, frescos and sculptures, which Manet saw during his first two journeys to Italy in 1853 and 1857.

The catalogue is published by Skira-Milan with texts by: Roberto Calasso, Guy Cogeval, Stéphane Guégan, Gabriella Belli, Flavio Fergonzi and Cesare De Seta.

Curated by Anna Mattirolo, The Trinity is an exhibition that presents the art of Francesco Vezzoli to the public in three different museums: MAXXI, MoMA PS1 in New York and MOCA in Los Angeles.

Art, religion and movies are the three key elements which have always been the main characters in Italian artist Francesco Vezzoli’s work since the beginning of his career. Three intertwined universes that Vezzoli wove in a series of strong allegories with a rich subtext of elaborate references, involving video installations, petit-point embroideries, photography and live performances, mixing heterogeneous languages and genres.

Galleria Vezzoli reconstructs the timeline of the artist’s research, from his embroideries of the 1990s to his most recent videos, through to his latest sculptures in marble. And it does so in a late-nineteenth-century museum display that interacts directly with Zaha Hadid’s contemporary architecture.
A section devoted to the subject of self portraits has also been included, linking the various works by Vezzoli to a broader reflection on individual and collective identity. The title of the exhibition and the display, which have been created by the artist himself, are an ironic, provocative invitation to reflect on the contemporary museum and on its role as a receiver of works of art and as a keeper of their value.

Other recent Vezzoli productions include Greed,  a signature perfume for the contemporary moment whose label featured Francesco Vezzoli in drag, photographed by Francesco Scavullo, where Duchamp appeared on his perfume bottle as Rrose Sélavy, photographed by Man Ray,  Non-Love Meetings (2004), a pilot show for a reality dating game that will never go to air, inspired by a documentary by Pier Paolo Pasolini and starring Catherine Deneuve, Jeanne Moreau and Marianne Faithful; Trailer for a remake of Gore Vidal's Caligula (2005), a Hollywood movie that will never be made, starring Gore Vidal, Helen Mirren, and Courtney Love, among others; Democrazy (2007), a tele-campaign for two candidates who will never be elected, starring Sharon Stone and Bernard-Henri Lévy; and a single live staging of Luigi Pirandello's Così è (se vi pare), the premiere of a play that will never run, starring Cate Blanchett and a host of top-billed New York stage actors.

Francesco Vezzoli was born in 1971, in Brescia, Italy. He studied at the Central St. Martin's School of Art in London from 1992 to 1995. His work has been exhibited at many institutions including: Castello di Rivoli Museo d'Arte Contemporanea, Turin (2002); Fondazione Prada, Milan (2004 and 2005); Museu Serralves, Porto (2005); Le Consortium, Dijon (2006); and the Power Plant, Toronto (2007). Vezzoli's work has also been featured in the 26th São Paulo Biennial (2004); the 51st Venice Biennale (2005); the Whitney Biennial (2006); and the 52nd Venice Biennale (2007). He currently lives and works in Milan.

Curated by the artist himself in collaboration with Elena Geuna, the exhibition Rudolf Stingel unfolds over the atrium and both upper floors of Palazzo Grassi, a space of over 5,000 square meters. For the first time, Palazzo Grassi is devoting the entirety of its space to the work of a single artist. It includes a site-specific installation as well as recent creations and previously unseen paintings. This is Stingel’s largest ever monographic presentation in Europe.

Conceived by Rudolf Stingel expressly for Palazzo Grassi, the project spreads over all the rooms of the building, where carpeting based on an oriental rug covers the entire surface of the walls and floors. The installation is part of Stingel’s artistic research, which has always analysed the relationship between exhibition space and artistic intervention: for the artist, the carpet is a medium through which painting relates to its architectural context. The exhibition presents a selection of over thirty paintings from collections around the world, including the artist’s collection and that of French billionaire François Pinault (born 1936, in Champs-Geraux, France).

Many of these works were created in the studios of Merano and New York specifically for this project.

Born in 1956, Rudolf Stingel lives and works between New York and Merano, his hometown. His work has been at the centre of several exhibitions in numerous international institutions, including the Secession, Vienna (2012); the Neue National Galerie, Berlin (2010); the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2007); the Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt (2004); the Museo d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Trento (2001). He took part in the Venice Biennial in 1993 and 2003.

At Palazzo Grassi, his work has been presented in the exhibitions Where Are We Going? (2006), Sequence 1 (2007), Mapping the Studio (2009-2010) and The World Belongs to You (2011).

Elena Geuna, born in 1960, is an independent curator and contemporary art advisor. Her main curatorial museum projects include exhibitions Jeff Koons (Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples, 2003; Château de Versailles, 2008); Fontana: Luce e Colore (Palazzo Ducale, Genoa, 2008); Zhang Huan: Ashman (PAC, Milan, 2010); Arte Povera in Moscow (Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow, 2011). In 2012, she curated the exhibitions Quilling and Freedom not Genius. Works from Damien Hirst’s Murderme collection at Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli in Turin.

Curated by Marco De Michelis, lecturer at the IUAV University of Architecture in Venice, and organised by the City of Como Department of Culture, The New City: Beyond Sant' Elia features 100 works, some of which have never been shown before, including paintings, drawings, films and installations by artists, architects and film directors, including Antonio Sant'Elia, Umberto Boccioni, Fernand Léger, Mario Sironi, Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright, Fritz Lang, Yona Friedman, Archizoom, Superstudio, Chris Burden, Carsten Hőller and others.

A section hosted in the Civic Gallery will show 50 drawings by Antonio Sant'Elia belonging to the City of Como, which have been inaccessible to the general public for many years.

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue published by Silvana editoriale, featuring essays by the curator and by Esther da Costa Meyer, Antonello Negri, Antonio Costa, Anna Rosellini, Jean-Louis Cohen, Aya Lurie, Mark Wigley, Manuel Orazi, Simon Sadler, Roberto Gargiani, Gabriele Mastrigli, Peter Pakesch, Paola Nicolin and Joseph Grima.