Primo Marella Gallery

Primo Marella Gallery Contemporary Art Gallery Founded in 1993, Primo Marella Gallery has witnessed a big expansion over the years.

In December 2004 the gallery opened a new space in Beijing inside the prosperous 798 Art Factory Area, followed in 2007 by the opening of a new venue in Milan designed by the internationally acclaimed architect Claudio Silvestrin, who is responsible for the realization of many contemporary art locations worldwide, among which Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in Turin and White Cube Gallery in Lo

ndon. From the very beginning Primo Marella Galleries have been committed to the promotion and documentation of emerging artists and movements coming from different areas outside Europe, both through the organization of shows and the publication of books and catalogues, with the help and collaboration of local curators and critics. Starting with China in the late Nineties, the focus of the gallery’s programs has touched different emerging areas, from Russia to India and from South East Asia to, more recently, Africa, always with the precise goal to pioneer in the presentation of such complex and constantly evolving artistic scenes both in Europe and Beijing and to gain the attention of museums, institutions and collectors for these emerging artists.

Primo Marella Gallery Publications: Alternative Practices and Unbound Forms: African Artists Across Recent BiennalesThe ...
01/09/2026

Primo Marella Gallery Publications: Alternative Practices and Unbound Forms: African Artists Across Recent Biennales

The exhibition explores the practices of contemporary African artists whose work challenges established narratives and expands the possibilities of artistic expression across international exhibitions

Featuring critical essays and extensive imagery, the publication examines the presence of African artists in recent biennales, highlighting diverse artistic approaches, cultural perspectives and the evolving dialogues that shape the global contemporary art landscape

Discover this comprehensive volume celebrating the richness, plurality and innovation of contemporary African artistic practices

The works featured in the book are now on view at Alternative Practices and Unbound Forms: African Artists Across Recent Biennales – Part II, Primo Marella Gallery Milano, until end of September 2026

🔗 Visit our website to shop the book online.⁠

Published and Edited by Primo Marella Gallery

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Stefano Arienti Pongo series Currently on view in “One Art, Please!” at Primo Marella Gallery Lugano - The show will res...
29/08/2026

Stefano Arienti Pongo series

Currently on view in “One Art, Please!” at Primo Marella Gallery Lugano - The show will resume on 31 August

In the series Pongo, Stefano Arienti intervenes on reproductions of masterpieces from art history – from Monet to Van Gogh – by applying a simple, everyday, and almost childlike material onto the surface of the image. Through this subtle gesture, the artist radically transforms the perception of the artwork: the reproduction is no longer merely a copy, but becomes a physical, tactile, and open object, where the iconic image is brought back into a dimension of direct experience and manipulation.

Alongside these works, Arienti’s drawings revisit fragments of classical art and deeply rooted iconographies, reactivating them through a minimal and delicate gesture that moves between memory and invention. Through a process of appropriation and transformation, familiar images are detached from their original context and opened to new interpretations.

Through the use of humble materials and simple interventions, One Art, Please! presents Arienti’s practice as a reflection on the circulation, reproduction, and transformation of images – questioning how artworks acquire meaning, authority, and new possibilities of perception.

One Art, Please! – duo exhibition by Marco Mazzucconi and Stefano Arienti

Curated by Maria Vittoria Baravelli

On view until end of September, 2026

📍 Primo Marella Gallery Lugano

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Alternative Practices and Unbound Forms: African Artists Across Recent Biennales – Part IIFeaturing works by El Anatsui,...
26/08/2026

Alternative Practices and Unbound Forms: African Artists Across Recent Biennales – Part II

Featuring works by El Anatsui, Joël Andrianomearisoa, Hako Hankson, Abdoulaye Konaté, Tegene Kunbi, Esther Mahlangu, Troy Makaza, Samuel Nnorom and Moffat Takadiwa
until end of September, 2026

📍 Primo Marella Gallery Milano

Alternative Practices and Unbound Forms: African Artists Across Recent Biennales explores two complementary trajectories within contemporary artistic practices. While Alternative Practices brings together artists for whom material becomes the structural foundation of the work, Unbound Forms shifts the focus towards the construction of form itself, embracing unconventional structures, compositional freedom, and new modes of spatial articulation.

Rather than focusing solely on the nature of materials, this second chapter investigates the ways in which forms are conceived, expanded, and reconfigured. Through the presentation of previously unseen works, the exhibition deepens its curatorial research, revealing new connections between artistic experimentation, material thinking, and the broader contexts from which these practices emerge.

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Shapes of Silence, the solo exhibition by Tegene Kunbi, is now on view at the Ethiopian Pavilion of the 61st Internation...
23/08/2026

Shapes of Silence, the solo exhibition by Tegene Kunbi, is now on view at the Ethiopian Pavilion of the 61st International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia

Featuring a new body of work by Tegene Kunbi, the exhibition explores silence as a material, cultural, and political condition through monumental paintings that merge abstraction with textiles and assemblage. Conceived as layered archives of memory and lived experience, the works challenge conventional readings of painting while expanding its social and sensory dimensions.

Curated by Abebaw Ayalew, with Yohannes Mulat Mekonnen as Curatorial Assistant, the show is presented at Palazzo Bollani (Castello 3647), Venice, through November 22, 2026

Shapes of Silence | Ethiopian Pavilion
🗓️ May 9 – November 22, 2026
📍 Palazzo Bollani - Castello 3647 / Corte Bollani

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Abdoulaye Konaté and Samuel Nnorom are participating in the 1st edition of the Bienal del Água – The Traces of Water in ...
20/08/2026

Abdoulaye Konaté and Samuel Nnorom are participating in the 1st edition of the Bienal del Água – The Traces of Water in Cascais, Portugal, curated by Demetrio Paparoni

Exploring water as a source of memory, connection, and transformation, the exhibition brings together artists whose practices reflect on the relationships between nature, culture, and collective experience.

Through their distinctive textile-based practices, Konaté and Nnorom contribute to this dialogue in two different yet connected ways: Konaté’s layered compositions transform colour and fabric into complex visual ecosystems, while Nnorom’s sculptural forms expand textile into dynamic structures shaped by accumulation, rhythm, and transformation.

Together, their works become part of a broader reflection on water as a vital element — carrying histories, movements, and shared narratives.

Bienal del Água – The Traces of Water
📍Centro de Congressos do Estoril, Cascais, Portugal

On view until September 6, 2026

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Abdoulaye Konaté and Joël Andrianomearisoa are currently featured in the exhibition “MIYAZAKI meets Taguchi Art Collecti...
17/08/2026

Abdoulaye Konaté and Joël Andrianomearisoa are currently featured in the exhibition “MIYAZAKI meets Taguchi Art Collection: What is Contemporary Art?” at the Miyazaki Prefectural Art Museum, Japan

Bringing together works by internationally acclaimed artists from the Taguchi Art Collection, the exhibition offers an engaging exploration of contemporary art through a wide range of artistic practices, encouraging visitors to reflect on the many ways art shapes our understanding of the present. By presenting a wide range of artistic languages and cultural perspectives, the exhibition invites visitors to reflect on the many ways contemporary art engages with society, history, identity, and the world we live in today

Last days to visit! The exhibition remains on view until August 30, 2026

Installation view: MIYAZAKI meets Taguchi Art Collection: What is Contemporary Art?, Miyazaki Prefectural Art Museum, Japan, 2026.

📸 Photo credits: Kenji Aoki / © Taguchi Art Collection

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Three projects in Antananarivo by Joël Andrianomearisoa, each exploring the relationship between language, architecture ...
14/08/2026

Three projects in Antananarivo by Joël Andrianomearisoa, each exploring the relationship between language, architecture and collective experience

From Le Musée des Promesses, an open-air museum that reimagines from Benin to Madagascar the role of cultural institutions, to Hevitra Teboka Baraingo sy Tsoraka, a monumental public installation transforming Malagasy punctuation into a poetic visual language, and Kabarin-Javakanto at Fondation H, a dialogue between artworks inspired by the ancestral art of Malagasy oratory, these projects reflect the artist’s ongoing commitment to creating spaces for encounter, reflection and imagination.

Across sculpture, architecture and exhibition-making, Andrianomearisoa invites us to rethink how art can inhabit public space, engage communities and open new possibilities for the future.

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Le Musée des Promesses
📍Collection Yavarhoussen, Antananarivo, Madagascar

Hevitra Teboka Baraingo sy Tsoraka
📍Casa Sport, Antananarivo, Madagascar

Kabarin-Javakanto
On view until October 17th, 2026
📍Fondation H, Antananarivo, Madagascar

© Studio Joël Andrianomearisoa / © Fabio Thierry Andriamiarintsoa

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Joël Andrianomearisoa will present the project TADY MITADY TADIDY (The Rope in Search of Memory) at the 18th Biennale de...
14/08/2026

Joël Andrianomearisoa will present the project TADY MITADY TADIDY (The Rope in Search of Memory) at the 18th Biennale de Lyon, curated by Catherine Nichols

Conceived as a monumental suspended installation, the work unfolds through 44 km of rope, weaving together stories, encounters, friendships, and connections into a poetic landscape of memory. The installation will be presented at Les Grandes Locos, one of the Biennale’s major venues.

Titled Passer d’un rêve à l’autre / To pass from one dream to another, the 18th Biennale de Lyon explores, through the practices of its invited artists, the passage between perceptions, collective dreams, and new ways of imagining the world.

Passer d’un rêve à l’autre / To pass from one dream to another, curated by Catherine Nichols
📍18th Biennale de Lyon, France

On view from September 19 to December 13, 2026

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Arvin Golrokh is participating to the 1st edition of Bienal Del Agua, The Traces of Water - in Cascais, Portugal - curat...
11/08/2026

Arvin Golrokh is participating to the 1st edition of Bienal Del Agua, The Traces of Water - in Cascais, Portugal - curated by Demetrio Paparoni

Presented for the first time at the 1st edition of Bienal Del Agua, The Traces of Water (Cascais, Portugal), “Idrarchia” marks a new chapter in Arvin Golrokh’s ongoing exploration of power, memory, and political imagination.

Conceived as an international platform where art, science, and technology converge, the Bienal del Agua explores water as both a vital resource and a powerful cultural, political, and ecological agent. Within this context, Idrarchia reflects on water as a site of circulation, memory, and resistance.

Borrowing its title from the concept of “hydrarchy” – the decentralized networks of exchange and collective agency historically shaped by the sea – the work extends Golrokh’s ongoing investigation into power, historical narratives, and the construction of political imaginaries. Rather than depicting water as landscape, Hydrarchy approaches it as a living archive, where borders become fluid and histories are continuously rewritten.

In the Bienal Del Agua, The Traces of Water, the work invites us to reconsider the sea not as a boundary, but as a space of connection, transformation, and shared histories.

Artwork details: Arvin Golrokh , Idrarchia, 2026, Oil on canvas, 180 × 230 cm

Bienal del Agua – The Traces of Water
Centro de Congresos de Estoril

📍Cascais, Portugal

On view until September 6, 2026

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08/08/2026

A conversation with Tegene Kunbi, representing Ethiopia at the 61st International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia with the solo project titled Shapes of Silence

Through his monumental textile-based paintings, Kunbi explores silence as a space where memory, history, and personal narratives converge. By bringing together fabrics with different origins — from handmade textiles created by his mother to industrial and sacred materials — the artist transforms each work into a layered reflection on identity, labour, and collective memory.

In this interview, Kunbi shares insights into his artistic journey and the ideas behind his presentation in Venice.

As the gallery supporting the artist and the project “Shapes of Silence”, we are proud to share this important milestone in Kunbi’s career, marking the culmination of many years of studio practice!

Shapes of Silence | Ethiopian Pavilion
🗓️ May 9 – November 22, 2026
📍 Palazzo Bollani - Castello 3647 / Corte Bollani

Film produced by Dela Art Collection
Video credit: .art_collection

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Indirizzo

Via Valtellina 31
Milan
20159

Orario di apertura

Lunedì 09:30 - 13:00
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Martedì 09:30 - 13:00
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