Jannis Kounellis in Lugano: painting as the key to understanding the work

The Giancarlo and Danna Olgiati Collection in Lugano presents from September 20, 2026 to January 17, 2027 the exhibition Jannis Kounellis. I am a Painter, curated by Vincenzo de Bellis, with opening scheduled for Sept. 19 at 6 p.m. The exhibition project proposes an interpretation of the work of Jannis Kounellis (Piraeus, 1936 - Rome, 2017) that takes painting as a central interpretive key, going beyond the usual definitions related toArte Povera and installation practice. The path is based on the phrase “I am a painter,” recurring in the artist’s reflection, understood as a statement of approach to reality.

The exhibition brings together more than 35 works created between the late 1950s and 2016, including previously unpublished works. The exhibition itinerary, set up in the spaces of the Olgiati Collection, does not follow a chronological order but a structure by thematic and visual relationships, built as a network of cross-references between matter and weight, language and sign, memory and silence, scene and iconic image. Through this approach, the works highlight the persistence of recurring poetic cores in Kounellis’ research, spanning the entire span of his career without a solution of stylistic continuity.

“The Greek term ζωγράφος - painter: the one who ’writes life’ - oriented the entire curatorial project,” explains Vincenzo de Bellis, curator of the exhibition. “Kounellis painted on canvas in the conventional sense for only a few years of his artistic trajectory, but then he painted throughout his life with iron, with coal, with fire, with jute sacks and the smell of coffee. He painted with space, with silence, with the memory of a Mediterranean civilization he felt threatened. Yet, no exhibition had yet taken painting as the main interpretive lens of his work.”

Jannis Kounellis in Lugano: painting as the key to understanding the work

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