In the heart of the historic center, the Palazzi dell’Arte Rimini host “Contemporary Summer” (Estate contemporanea), an exhibition project that invites the public to explore the languages and sensibilities of international and Italian contemporary art.
The project features two highly rich exhibitions, distinctly different in their themes, mediums, poetics, and styles, both curated by leading figures in the curatorial field.
The first section, “Sailing to Byzantium – 6 artists from New York,” curated by Richard Milazzo, brings together six artists active in the contemporary New York scene. Previously presented in Venice and now restaged in Rimini—both Adriatic cities symbolically facing the East—the exhibition is inspired by William Butler Yeats’ poem Sailing to Byzantium. The show suggests a journey that goes beyond mere geographical movement: an ideal passage from the visible world to a more transcendent dimension, where sensory experience is transformed and preserved within the artwork. The printing techniques used become a space for experimentation and dialogue, acting as a workshop of ideas, images, and concepts developed on high-impact visual surfaces.
The exhibition gathers works by Donald Baechler, with his elegant and vibrant engravings; Ross Bleckner, with intense and dynamic pictorial experimentations; Peter Halley, with textured and structured pieces; Vik Muniz, known for his perceptual play; Peter Nagy, focused on symbolic and semiotic research; and Walter Robinson, who draws from pop and cinematic imagery.
Altogether, the exhibition offers a visual journey connecting the 1980s New York art scene with the contemporary context of Rimini, building a dialogue between languages, cultures, and references that evoke a sense of continuity between present and memory, West and East.
Alongside this international perspective, on the ground floor, Rimini-born painter Luca Giovagnoli presents a highly personal anthology: “Luca Giovagnoli – Summer Dream” curated by Valentina Ciarallo. The exhibition revolves around the theme of summer as a space of desire, contemplation, and imagination. The works connect various elements—from metaphysics to pop art, illustration to influences of Filippo de Pisis—with nods to David Hockney as well. What emerges is a dimension suspended between reality and vision, where the body, the landscape, and particularly the marine environment take center stage. The exhibition guides the viewer through a recognizable setting—that of the Riviera—which progressively transforms into a more imaginative dimension. Scenes resembling photographs or advertising images are reworked into painterly visions where color becomes a dynamic element, capable of translating thoughts.