Art and architecture have often gone happily hand in hand. Some examples of this romantic union are there for all to see in Milan, from the Fondazione Prada to the Triennale to Pirelli Hangar Bicocca. But it is not always necessary to go to a museum to realise this, sometimes it is enough to visit some of the galleries in the city that have built their programme and their fortunes precisely on the recovery of spaces and dialogue with the buildings that house them.

Below is a selection of five galleries selected for this itinerary

Massimo De Carlo

Founded in Milan in 1987, for over thirty years the Massimo De Carlo gallery has played a fundamental role in introducing Italian artists to international audiences as well as bringing the most interesting voices of global art to Italy, promoting a vital dialogue between artists, institutions, critics, curators and collectors.

Over the years, the artists represented by the gallery have all gained international recognition, have been shown in renowned museums and biennials and their works are widely collected in public and private collections.
After opening a new space in London in 2009 and another one in Hong Kong at the beginning of 2016, in the same year Massimo De Carlo inaugurated a second space in the center of Milan, in Palazzo Belgioioso, in the heart of the city, the gallery’s exhibition venue until 2021.

Galleria Massimo De Carlo
Viale Lombardia, 17, 20131 Milano MI
www.massimodecarlo.com

Gió Marconi

Gió Marconi Gallery started in 1990 under the initiative of Gió Marconi who had previously created Studio Marconi 17, an experimental space for young artists and curators that he ran from 1987 to 1990. At the beginning, the new gallery was directed by Gió and his gallerist father Giorgio, who in turn had founded the gallery Studio Marconi (1965-1992). In its opening year, the gallery had showcased exhibitions by Martin Kippenberger, Mario Schifano as well as Richard Hamilton. In the 30 years to follow, Gió Marconi Gallery has developed an ongoing vibrant program and its own consistent approach to exhibiting and combining brave choices well ahead of their time. Throughout the decades, the gallery continued to support the careers of its artists, promoting their diverse practices to audiences and institutions at home and abroad. While the focus of the gallery has always been on contemporary positions, it gradually started to include also historical artists of the Studio Marconi.

Gió Marconi
Via Tadino 15 20124 Milano
www.giomarconi.com

Lia Rumma

In 1999 Lia Rumma opened her space in Milan, in the Brera area, with a solo show by Enrico Castellani. For 10 years the space hosted a program of exhibitions that completed the shows held in Naples presenting site specific projects.

In 2010 Lia Rumma inaugurated a new current space, a large scale building of 2000 sqm on 3 levels, with a solo show by Italian artist Ettore Spalletti. The new gallery conceived for Art and the Artists became a place for developing cultural interactions and marked a fundamental step in Lia Rumma Gallery history. Since then, a series of monumental projects and exhibitions followed in the Milanese space (Marina Abramovic, Vanessa Beecroft, Victor Burgin, Clegg&Guttmann, Gary Hill, Alfredo Jaar, Ilya &Emilia Kabakov, William Kentridge, Anselm Kiefer, Joseph Kosuth, David Lamelas, Luca Monterastelli, Reinhard Mucha, Ugo Mulas, Thomas Ruff, Haim Steinbach, Tobias Zielony, Gilberto Zorio). Over the years, besides the exhibiting program in the gallery spaces in Naples and Milan, Lia Rumma Gallery has encouraged a vivid collaboration with galleries, curators, critics and collectors that has led to international prestigious events in museums and institutions both in Italy and abroad.

Galleria Lia Rumma
Via Stilicone, 19, Milano
www.liarumma.it

Vistamare

Vistamare was founded in Pescara in 2001, originated by an idea of Benedetta, Federica and Vittoriano Spalletti. Grown up surrounded by art, Benedetta Spalletti created a place devoted to the dialogue with artists, aiming to build a climate of cultural vitality linked to the territory, but at the same time capable of generating a broader exchange with the international reality. The gallery's program has been dedicated since the beginning to conceptual art, introducing exhibitions of established artists such as Ettore Spalletti, Joseph Kosuth, Haim Steinbach and Mimmo Jodice, alongside exhibitions, often dialogic, of artists from a different generation, such as Armin Linke, Mario Airò and Rosa Barba.

In 2018 Benedetta Spalletti, together with Lodovica Busiri Vici, opened a space in Milan, Vistamarestudio, where several experimental exhibitions were presented, such as the first performance in a gallery of the Israeli collective Public Movement.

In 2022 the Pescara and Milan galleries merged into a single project, Vistamare Milano / Pescara, and a new space was inaugurated inside a courtyard of an Art Nouveau building in Porta Venezia in Milan, including a central hall dominated by a large skylight that floods the space with natural light and two symmetrical and specular rooms. Here, in conjunction with the gallery program, a series of in-depth studies called "focus on" was started, in which emerging artists from the Italian and international scene are invited to create site-specific projects conceived specifically for the gallery space.

Vistamare
Via Spontini, 8 – 20131 Milano
www.vistamare.com

Cassina Projects

After three years in New York, Cassina Projects opens a new location in Milan. In the historic Caproni aircraft factory, the gallery is spread over two floors in a 1250 m2 space that includes two exhibition spaces, viewing rooms, an artist's residence and offices. Since  2016 the gallery has set off on a mission to develop a cross-generational and international program, fostering a dialogue between established figures with wide critical recognition, mid-career and emerging artists. Through a multidisciplinary approach and collaborations with a network of institutions, critics, curators and art historians, Cassina Projects is devoted to engaging in the contemporary art discourse and playing a role in a broader conversation about the world and society at large.

Cassina Projects
Via Mecenate, 76/45, 20138 Milano MI
www.cassinaprojects.com