So, what’s in town this month? Let’s take a look at a couple of things you need to catch before they leave. Some of the things I highlighted last month are still on:
- Inequalities, Triennale Milano (till November 9th);
- the amazing I am Leonor Fini at Palazzo Reale (until June 22nd): I talked about it here;
- The Seduction of Colour: Andrea Solario and Renaissance between Italy and France at Museo Poldi Pezzoli with installation by Migliore+Servetto (until June 30th): I talked about it here.
Sabrina Ratté’s Realia at MEET Digital Culture Centre closes today. I talked about it here.
Onwards with this month, now, and remember it’s Pride Month.
Digital
Rhino Workshops at EDD 2025 | Envisioning Design Day
An event dedicated to digital design with Rhino, held at the IED (Istituto Europeo di Design) and featuring workshops on surface modelling and optimization, parametric patterns, renderings and AI.
Tickets and program are here.
Cultural
Art Déco, the Triumph of Modernity, Palazzo Reale
Until June 29, 2025
Commemorating the centenary of the 1925 Paris Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes, this exhibition at Palazzo Reale offers an extensive exploration of the Art Déco movement. Curated by Valerio Terraroli, the exhibition showcases over 250 works, including ceramics, glassware, furniture, jewellery, paintings, sculptures, and period films. Highlights feature creations by renowned artists and designers such as Gio Ponti, Galileo Chini, Vittorio Zecchin, Paolo Venini, Ettore Zaccari, and Alfredo Ravasco.
A notable section of the exhibition is dedicated to the Royal Hall at Milano Centrale Station, an Art Déco masterpiece. Through a selection of documents and archival materials, visitors can delve into the design and significance of this iconic space. You must catch it before it leaves. You simply must. I talked about it here.
Felice Casorati: A Retrospective, Palazzo Reale
Until June 29, 2025
After more than three decades, Palazzo Reale honours the multifaceted Italian artist Felice Casorati (1883–1963) with a comprehensive retrospective. This exhibition showcases over 100 works, including paintings, sculptures, drawings, and stage designs, tracing Casorati’s artistic journey from his early 20th-century beginnings to the 1950s. The exhibition highlights his exploration of realism, symbolism, and magic realism, and his contributions to scenography and costume design. I talked about it here. I crafted a Casorati-inspired tour of Milan here.
Antonio Canova: Beauty and the Ideal
Until May 2026
You have a full year of time to visit this splendid show: from 16 May 2025 to 17 May 2026, the Pinacoteca di Brera hosts “La Bellezza e l’Ideale”, marking the first major update to its Room since 2018, and offers visitors an intimate encounter with Antonio Canova’s neoclassical genius. Twelve restored plaster busts by Canova, dating from circa 1807–1818, recently discovered in Villa Canal alla Gherla (Treviso) and meticulously restored are displayed for the first time in Milan, and a rare marble bust of the Vestal Virgin (1818–1819) returns to Brera after over a century, enriching the dialogue between marble and plaster within the exhibition setting. The display also features delicate enamel miniatures from the Sommariva collection, small reproductions of key artworks once owned by the Napoleonic art patron Giovanni Battista Sommariva, now part of Brera’s historical treasures.
Hi-Tech
Yukinori Yanagi: ICARUS at Pirelli HangarBicocca
From 27 March to 27 July 2025, Pirelli HangarBicocca in Milan hosts “ICARUS”, the first major European retrospective of Japanese artist Yukinori Yanagi. Curated by Vicente Todolí with Fiammetta Griccioli, it spans key works from the 1990s through today, offering a sweeping view of Yanagi’s thought-provoking art practice. The exhibition title obviously references the Greek myth of Icarus, an allegory for human hubris and our technological overreach, especially likened to nuclear energy, and the show features site-Specific Installations, as monumental works reshape the former industrial spaces of the Hangar’s Navate and Cubo, exploring tension between destruction and rebirth, reality and illusion. A centrepiece is The World Flag Ant Farm 2025, a living re-enactment of his Venice Biennale piece, featuring colored-sand flags that crumble under the migration of live ants, symbolising erosion of national identity. The installation Icarus Container 2025 is a labyrinth built from shipping containers and mirrors, with a light-filled tower that imbues the space with both luminosity and disorientation, and Hinomaru Illumination 2025 is a neon representation of the Japanese flag projected onto reflective water, evoking the fragility and symbolism of national emblems.
A Kind of Language: Storyboards at Fondazione Prada
From 30 January to 8 September 2025, the Osservatorio di Fondazione Prada in Galleria Vittorio Emanuele presents A Kind of Language, curated by Melissa Harris. This exhibition delves into the “secret” visual language of cinema by showcasing over 800 items, including storyboards, sketches, annotated scripts, mood boards, photographs, and notebooks, spanning nearly a century, from Georges Méliès’s early drawings to contemporary works. Contributions from more than 50 creatives across disciplines – directors (Fellini, Hitchcock, Coppola, Miyazaki), cinematographers, animators, choreographers – trace an expansive dialogue between drawing and filmmaking.
Tarek Atoui: Improvisation in 10 Days at Pirelli HangarBicocca
From 6 February to 20 July 2025, Pirelli HangarBicocca transforms its vast SHED into an immersive soundscape with Improvisation in 10 Days, the Lebanese-French artist’s first solo show in Italy. Curated by Lucia Aspesi, the exhibition explores the dynamic interplay between sound, space, and material, revealing how everyday elements become conduits for sonic exploration. Atoui investigates the acoustic properties of materials like water, air, stone, and bronze, which become tools and instruments within sculptural installations that invite sensory interaction.
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