Bruce Gilden in Brescia: street photography meets the grace of Raphael

Brescia is preparing to become the Italian center of street photography with the arrival of Bruce Gilden (New York, 1946), a member of the Magnum Photos agency, from March 27 to August 23, 2026. The city will host for the first time an exhibition project consisting of a monographic exhibition, A Closer Look, at the Santa Giulia Museum, and a site-specific installation, Grace / Grazia. Bruce Gilden for Raphael, at the Pinacoteca Tosio Martinengo. The initiative, curated by Denis Curti and developed in direct collaboration with the artist, is one of the main events of the 9th edition of the Brescia Photo Festival.

The monographic exhibition, which brings together about 80 photographs, offers a selection of portraits made between 2013 and 2024, with the Faces project, characterized by the use of flash and a direct and intense approach to the subjects, immortalized in different cities around the world between the United States, Mexico, Greece, Colombia and England. Alongside these works, the exhibition includes black-and-white photographs taken in the 1960s and 1970s in New York, Japan, Haiti, France, Ireland and England, documenting the author’s professional and biographical journey. The exhibition will also include two audiovisual contributions: an interview conducted by British photographer Martin Parr and a video produced by the Magnum Photos agency, both aimed at contextualizing Gilden’s activity and artistic choices.

The installation Grace / Grazia focuses on the dialogue between contemporary photography and classical art, reinterpreting the concept of grace from the works of Raphael, on loan to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The photographic diptych, commissioned by the City of Brescia and the Brescia Musei Foundation, will be on view from March 27 until July 12 at the Pinacoteca Tosio Martinengo. The cultural operation, supported by the Ministry of Culture’s Strategy Photography 2025 call, aims to consolidate photography as a contemporary artistic medium capable of confronting the great themes of art from the past. Access will be free for both spaces on the first day of opening, Friday, March 27. The exhibition will be accompanied by a unique catalog published by Skira.

Bruce Gilden in Brescia: street photography meets the grace of Raphael

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