From 17 March to 12 July 2026, Palazzo Esposizioni Roma hosts a major retrospective dedicated to Mario Schifano (Rome, 1934–1998), one of the most significant and popular figures in late 20th century Italian art, presented by Azienda Speciale Palaexpo and Intesa Sanpaolo. The exhibition is promoted by the Assessorato alla Cultura di Roma Capitale and by Azienda Speciale Palaexpo and produced and organised by Azienda Speciale Palaexpo in collaboration with Intesa Sanpaolo and Gallerie d’Italia. The Main Partner is Eni and the exhibition is sponsored by Fondazione Silvano Toti.
Curated by Daniela Lancioni, the curator of Azienda Speciale Palaexpo, the exhibition traces Schifano’s artistic career through his key visual innovations: from his informal and textured early works of the 1950s to the first monochromes of 1960, from the period that began with the exhibition entitled Tutto, held at the Odyssia Gallery in Rome in 1963, to the new iconographies informed by the language of photography and figures from art history (from the Futurists to Malevich), from his Paesaggi TV to film, through to the large-scale paintings of the 1980s and the works of the 1990s, in which the artist’s sensitivity to social issues was manifested most explicitly.
A figure of singular importance, Mario Schifano shaped the Italian art scene with a career distinguished by constant innovation, engaging with the key movements of the latter half of the 20th century and often preceding them. His work is the expression of a constant desire to regenerate painting by exploring new ways of seeing and thinking using different languages; not only painting but also photography and film, all of which are featured in the exhibition.
