An exhibition presents Byzantine African art, the other investigates the ‘900 Harlem Renaissance

Our Lady Kyriotissa (“Ruler of the world”) seated on a throne with the Child in his hand. They both look up, slightly to our right, towards eternity, but not directly. It looks like a goddess, probably Isis, first Egyptian, then Roman, finally Christian. Next, in slight prominence, two saints in sacred and military vestments, the only ones from the incarnation of this world, the severe gaze turned to us, as to mark a threshold and prevent a passage.

An edition that reflects an increasingly foreign and queer society

The LX Biennale di Venezia promises to be foreign and queer. Already in the title, “Strangers everywhere”, reflects the crises of our world, with exodus of people physically moving between nations and boundaries, and psychically between concepts of identity, race, gender, sexuality, facing all the pitfalls connected with these concepts.

In his work, material and intangible entities penetrate. Metaphors and mythological symbols that refer to the suspended time of waiting

“I was born in a hospital basement. That’s where my mother gave birth to me and that same night our house was bombed”. Born and raised in the rubble of a country razed to the ground, Anselm Kiefer (Donaueschingen - Germany, 1945) is today one of the greatest living artists.

On display 49 works divided into 4 sections

One of the most awaited exhibitions of the year, and in my opinion one of the most successful, opened its doors in Fondazione Prada headquarters in Milan: “Pino Pascali”, curated by Mark Godfrey.

50 shots on view where the artist desecrates the documentary role of photography

In the brilliant comedy directed by Marc Foster “Stranger than Fiction”, IRS agent Harold, surprised by the breaking in of an inner voice in his boring and predictable daily life, realizes that he is part of a novel. The planes of reality and narration mix, sometimes fight against each other, and at other times compensate, but, in the end, they converge in a compromise between the character and the writer.

An exhibition curated in every detail by the artist recently passed away

The Guggenheim dedicates a great retrospective to Giovanni Anselmo, entitled “Beyond the Horizon” (curated by Gloria Moure, until May 19th). The artist - who passed away on December 18th - designed and curated this exhibition in every detail: from the structure of the spaces of the iconic building signed by Frank Gehry to placing his photo on the cover of the catalogue.

There is a rebus in the art world of difficult resolution. And it is an exciting theme, extraordinarily important and decisive in the intersection between artistic production and its commercialization. I have known, for many years, artists, gallery owners, collectors. I interpret, on many occasions, the path, the fantasy, the scheme of the game. But they have, basically, a trait I would say common, in some ways irreplaceable.

About twenty unpublished works that have the Mediterranean routes as theme on view

The Mediterranean as a space of a story that has been going on for centuries, that has created and contaminated our culture, with the migrations that have made us become what we are. This is the background of Giuseppe Modica’s exhibition “Rotte mediterranee e visione circolare” (“Mediterranean routes and circular vision”), in the spaces of the Hendrik Christian Andersen House Museum, curated by Maria Giuseppina Di Monte and Gabriele Simongini.

In the exhibition dedicated to Leonardo and the Leonardeschi, 15 works from the 60s to today seal his link with classicism

Giuliano Vangi, who just passed away at the age of 93, admirably managed to combine the lessons of some great masters of the past with disturbing contemporary issues. When he came from Pesaro to the large studio in Pietrasanta, Versilia, he behaved as an inflexible, rigorous employee of himself: working hours from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. and from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. with a break for a frugal meal and to smoke a cigarette.

Foreigners Everywhere: il titolo della 60ª edizione della Biennale. Non una grande novità per una città come Venezia, con una storia millenaria di apertura allo straniero. Basta guardare l'architettura di questa Costantinopoli occidentale, dove il gotico fiorito del Nord si armonizza con i losanghe e le cupole dorate di Bisanzio e dell'Islam. Nei secoli è stata crocevia di popoli e culture che nella Serenissima hanno trovato un'accoglienza curiosa, intelligente; un po' ladra di idee a volte, di opere e merci quasi sempre.