The Palazzo Strozzi Foundation announces the 2027 exhibition program for the Piano Nobile, featuring two major exhibitions dedicated to contemporary art: in the spring, *California Dreaming* will explore the myth and contradictions of California, while in the fall, *Basquiat. In Italian will examine the relationship between the American artist and Italian cultural history.
From March 20 to July 18, 2027, Palazzo Strozzi will host “California Dreaming,” a major exhibition dedicated tothe Californian imagination and its many contradictions. Curated by Arturo Galansino, General Director of the Palazzo Strozzi Foundation, the exhibition will be co-organized with the Manetti Shrem Museum of Art in Davis, California, where it will be curated by Susie Kantor. The project will explore California through the works of artists from the 1960s to the present, examining the allure of this region and the gap between its myth and reality. Modernity and success, utopia and disillusionment, freedom, and social contradictions will be among the themes at the heart of the exhibition.
The exhibition will bring together different generations and artistic languages, featuring artists born or active in California or with strong ties to its culture. Among the featured artists are David Hockney, James Turrell, Judy Chicago, John Baldessari, Ed Ruscha, Mike Kelley, and Catherine Opie, alongside contemporary artists such as Sadie Barnette, Alex Israel, Patrick Martinez, Lauren Halsey, and Refik Anadol. The exhibition will explore some of the most defining aspects of California’s identity: from hedonism to political activism, from pop culture to new technologies, from car culture to natural and urban landscapes, and the relationship between individualism, community, and the plurality of identities. Paintings, photographs, sculptures, videos, and installations will be presented thanks to loans from international museums and collections, alongside new works created specifically for the exhibition. “California Dreaming” will also encompass the entire Palazzo Strozzi, from the Piano Nobile to the courtyard and the Project Space, transforming the historic building into a single, large-scale exhibition project.
The second exhibition of 2027 will be *Basquiat. In Italian*, scheduled from September 25, 2027, to January 23, 2028. Dedicated to Jean-Michel Basquiat, one of the most influential artists of the 20th century, the exhibition will offer a new interpretation of his work through its relationship with art history and Italy’s cultural heritage. Curated by Dieter Buchhart and Anna Karina Hofbauer, the exhibition will bring together over sixty works from major international public and private collections.
At the heart of the exhibition will be Basquiat’s relationship with Italy, considered both as a source of cultural and iconographic references and as a place the artist visited several times during his lifetime. The exhibition will highlight how Basquiat reworked figures, symbols, and models drawn from different eras and cultures. From ancient Rome to Leonardo da Vinci, from ancient Egypt to Galileo Galilei, the historical and artistic heritage of the past becomes, in his work, material to be reinterpreted through a contemporary, immediate, and layered language. Graphic elements, words, pictograms, anatomical figures, and recurring symbols form compositions in which historical references and contemporary allusions overlap, generating new meanings. This continuous interplay between past and present also allows for a deeper exploration of the social and political dimensions of Basquiat’s work. His images, in fact, become tools for reflecting on issues that remain relevant today, such as identity, racism, social inequalities, and capitalism.
With *California Dreaming* and *Basquiat. In Italian*, Palazzo Strozzi will present two distinct exhibitions in 2027, both united by a desire to connect contemporary art, history, society, and culture. The first exhibition will explore California as a laboratory of ideas, images, and social transformations; the second will delve into the dialogue between one of the leading figures in 20th-century art and Italy’s cultural heritage.
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| Palazzo Strozzi: Two Major Exhibitions in 2027 Dedicated to the California Imaginary and Jean-Michel Basquiat |
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