The new exhibitions of Palazzo Strozzi for 2021

Culture does not stop, on the contrary. Palazzo Strozzi confirmed all the exhibitions that the director Arturo Galansino announced in his interview last spring.

It starts with Marinella Senatore: from 3 December to 7 February Palazzo Strozzi We Rise by Lifting Others, a new project of the Italian artist, invited to propose a new reflection on the idea of community, closeness and relationship in an era strongly tested in this sense. The project consists of a large installation for the courtyard, inspired by the illuminations of the popular tradition of southern Italy, and a program of participatory workshops, focused on the idea of social activation and community building through performance practice. Among the most famous Italian artists at international level, Marinella Senatore carries on an art that crosses different disciplines, visual arts, dance and theater. Her works have been exhibited in various venues in Italy and around the world, such as the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the MAXXI museum in Rome, and she has participated in many important international biennials.

In spring (6 March to 25 July) it will be the turn of American Art 1961-2001, a major exhibition that for the first time tells the story of modern art in the United States between two decisive historical moments, the beginning of the Vietnam War and the attack of 11 September 2001, through an extraordinary selection of works by famous artists such as Jasper Johns, Donald Judd, Barbara Kruger, Robert Mapplethorpe, Kerry James Marshall, Bruce Nauman, Cindy Sherman, Robert Rauschenberg, Kara Walker and Andy Warhol. Curated by Vincenzo de Bellis (Curator and Associate Director of Programs, Visual Arts, Walker Art Center) and Arturo Galansino, the exhibition - which sees Palazzo Strozzi as a unique venue - celebrates great American art in forty years of history from the 1960s to the 2000s through more than 80 works by 55 American artists on loan from the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, one of the most important museums of contemporary art in the world.

Great expectation for Jeff Koons - already a guest in Florence with a large solo show in 2016 - protagonist at Palazzo Strozzi of a new major exhibition, his most important exhibition ever held in Italy, scheduled for autumn 2021. Developed in direct relationship with the artist, curated by Arturo Galansino and Joachim Pissarro, the exhibition welcomes in Florence some of the most famous works of this great contemporary master who, from the late 1970s to the present day, has established himself as one of the most important figures in global art. Koons finds in the idea of "shine" (shine) one of the main characteristics of his art: this concept goes beyond a mere idea of decoration or embellishment, it becomes the very material of Koons's art, combining exteriority and essence. Through a wide selection of the most famous paintings and sculptures of his career, the exhibition investigates the concept of shine between splendor and glow, preciousness and banality, being and appearing.