In Paris, Giorgio Morandi enters into dialogue with Albers, Fontana, Spalletti and Lee Ufan, while Artissima brings together works by Giosetta Fioroni and Mattia Moreni. From the inclusion of works by Claudine Drai in the collection of the Centre Pompidou to the forthcoming exhibition dedicated to Marco Palmieri, the gallery is shaping a model that brings together the promotion of twentieth-century art, cultural production and the European art market.
From Giorgio Morandi to Lucio Fontana, from Giosetta Fioroni to Mattia Moreni, and through to the contemporary practices of Claudine Drai and Marco Palmieri, Bologna-based Galleria d'Arte Maggiore g.a.m. is experiencing a period of intense activity across Italy and France, developing a programme that brings together leading figures of twentieth-century art with artists from different generations and artistic backgrounds. Exhibitions, publications, art fair participations and institutional collaborations form part of a broader trajectory through which the gallery continues to strengthen its presence within the international art world.
Founded in 1978 by Franco and Roberta Calarota and now directed by Alessia Calarota, Maggiore g.a.m. has built an identity over nearly five decades around the study and promotion of modern Italian art, with particular attention to Giorgio Morandi and Giorgio de Chirico. This specialisation has gradually expanded through projects exploring the relationships between painting, sculpture, design and architecture, gaining a new international dimension with the opening of its Paris venue in 2024. It is precisely in the French capital that one of the most significant initiatives in the gallery's current programme is taking place. Giorgio Morandi. Un lieu de l'infini, extended until 28 November, brings the still lifes of the Bolognese painter into dialogue with works by Josef Albers, Lucio Fontana, Ettore Spalletti and Lee Ufan, alongside tributes by Arman, Bertozzi & Casoni, César and Dadamaino.
The project revisits a line of enquiry that has shaped the gallery's work for decades: understanding how Morandi's art, seemingly focused on a limited repertoire of subjects, has continued to engage with the major transformations of contemporary artistic language. Its historical point of reference is the major exhibition held in Paris in 1987 at the Hôtel de Ville, organised at the initiative of Bernadette Chirac, when Franco Solmi identified what he termed the “Morandi condition”: the artist's ability to remain consistently relevant, navigating the transformations of art without sacrificing his expressive independence. That reflection returns today through juxtapositions that explore light, space, colour and seriality. The dialogue with Ettore Spalletti, previously developed by the gallery in Bologna in 2014–2015, brings Morandi's tonal investigations into conversation with a painterly practice capable of transforming colour into a spatial experience. The comparison with Lee Ufan, also presented by the gallery at The Armory Show in New York in 2017, highlights affinities in the essential nature of gesture and the concentrated quality of the gaze. Particularly noteworthy is the inclusion of a Still Life from 1941, from the collection of art historian Francesco Arcangeli.
In Josef Albers, the theme of repetition emerges as a method of painterly investigation: the German- American artist's squares and Morandi's everyday objects become instruments through which to explore the relationships between form, colour and perception. With Lucio Fontana, the focus shifts to the possibility of representing a space that transcends the boundaries of the pictorial surface. The Paris exhibition also accompanies the publication of Giorgio Morandi. Mark Rothko, published by Fondazione Calarota and Dario Cimorelli Editore, which develops a further dialogue between two major figures of twentieth-century painting, featuring contributions connected with the National Gallery of Art in Washington and the Rothko Foundation. Morandi's work thus remains a constant element in the gallery's cultural strategy, providing a framework through which a central figure of Italian modernity can be reconsidered from an international perspective. The decision to build exhibitions around historical and artistic relationships, rather than limiting presentations to individual monographic displays, has become a defining feature of Maggiore g.a.m.'s programme. This approach is also evident in exhibitions organised in recent years, from comparisons between Morandi and Joseph Beuys to projects devoted to Massimo Campigli and Etruscan civilisation, as well as the exhibition on Gio Ponti and the Italian home, organised in Paris in collaboration with the Gio Ponti Archive. The relationship between visual arts, architecture and decorative arts broadens the gallery's field of research, situating Italian modernism within a more complex cultural history.
Meanwhile, in Turin, Maggiore g.a.m. is taking part in Artissima 2026 with a project dedicated to two distinctive figures of the second half of the twentieth century in Italy: Giosetta Fioroni and Mattia Moreni. At booth 5 in the Light Blue corridor, the dialogue revolves around the representation of the human figure, memory and the transformation of images. On one side are Fioroni's Argenti (Silver Works), in which photography, painting and mass visual culture converge in images suspended between autobiography and collective memory. On the other are Moreni's Umanoidi (Humanoids), produced during the final phase of his career, which address, through a visionary and provocative language, the transformations of humanity in the age of machines and information technology. The gallery's interest in Moreni forms part of an exhibition programme developed between Bologna and Paris. In 2025, it dedicated an exhibition to the artist in Bologna, revisiting his practice also through the writings of Italo Calvino; in 2026, it presented Un altro guardare at its Paris venue, focusing specifically on the Umanoidi series. Fioroni, meanwhile, was the subject of the Bologna exhibition Il futuro è uscito dal passato, organised in collaboration with the Fondazione Goffredo Parise e Giosetta Fioroni. These projects demonstrate the gallery's commitment to artists who have occupied significant positions in the history of twentieth-century art, but whose work continues to offer opportunities for research and critical reassessment. Repositioning these artists within contemporary debate is also a market-related issue, in a sector where new art-historical interpretations can help renew collectors' interest.
Alongside established historical figures, the gallery pursues a programme devoted to contemporary artists, focusing on opportunities for institutional recognition and relationships with other areas of cultural production. One example is Claudine Drai, the French artist whose practice explores the lightness of matter, light itself and the transformation of paper into sculptural forms. In December 2024, a group of her works entered the collections of the Centre Pompidou through an acquisition project supported by collectors and facilitated by the gallery's promotional efforts. This marked a significant step towards institutional recognition for the artist, whose work had already been the subject of a film by Wim Wenders, Présence, presented in Venice and subsequently at the Paris museum. Drai's artistic research has also found new interlocutors within the French luxury sector.
Her experience illustrates how relationships between galleries, major companies and cultural institutions have become one of the key areas of development in the contemporary art market. Collaborations with luxury brands can broaden artists' production opportunities and visibility, while their cultural value ultimately depends on their ability to support independent artistic research and foster its lasting circulation. In December, the Paris venue will open a new chapter with Mise en scène, an exhibition by Marco Palmieri running from 1 December 2026 to 9 January 2027, curated by Carlotta Testori. The exhibition will investigate the relationship between art and architecture through photographs, drawings, watercolours and models, developing a reflection on space as both a visual and conceptual construction. Palmieri's practice draws on the experience he gained working alongside Ettore Sottsass, which proved fundamental to his understanding of colour, form and the relationship between objects and their surroundings. The project therefore continues the gallery's established interdisciplinary approach, through which the history of modern art intersects with design and spatial planning.
Finally, Maggiore g.a.m.'s international dimension goes hand in hand with a commitment to its strong Italian roots. In Bologna, where the gallery maintains its historic headquarters, exhibitions and research activities continue to develop; in Venice, through ACP Palazzo Franchetti by Fondazione Calarota, established in 2019, the family has created a platform dedicated to exhibition projects and cultural collaborations.
