From May 6 to June 28, 2026, Casa Sanlorenzo in Venice is hosting WAVES, the first exhibition produced by Sanlorenzo Arts, a cultural project developed by the yachting maison as an extension of its activities in the field of contemporary art. The initiative is being presented during the Venice Biennale and marks a shift in the company’s cultural strategy, which in recent years has consolidated a network of collaborations with institutions, artists and designers around the themes of innovation, design and sea culture.
Curated by Sergio Risaliti and Cristiano Seganfreddo, a member of the Sanlorenzo Arts Scientific Committee, the exhibition brings together historical and contemporary works within the spaces of Casa Sanlorenzo, also involving the garden and the pedestrian bridge connected to the structure. The exhibition project takes as its starting point the concept of wave, interpreted as a universal principle capable of relating natural phenomena, energy processes, physical transformations and perceptual dimensions.
According to the curatorial layout, the wave becomes a connecting element between art, science and the sea, but also a metaphor for continuous movement and change. In fact, the exhibition uses the wave theme to build a path through different artistic languages and disciplines, expanding the reflection from the seascape to the cosmic dimension thanks to the scientific contributions of astrophysicist Ersilia Vaudo Scarpetta.
The exhibition includes works by Alexander Calder, Lucio Fontana and Fausto Melotti, three central figures in twentieth-century sculpture united by their research on movement, rhythm and the transformation of space. Alongside the historic masters appear works by contemporary artists such as Tony Cragg and Christine Safa. Cragg’s sculptures insist on the theme of the metamorphosis of matter and form, developing volumes that seem to be traversed by a continuous dynamic tension. Safa’s pictorial works, on the other hand, work on the dissolution of the image into chromatic and atmospheric fields, where light and color take on a fluid and changing dimension.
The exhibition also includes a series of site-specific interventions conceived for the spaces of Casa Sanlorenzo. Marcello Maloberti presents ECHO, an installation placed on the pedestrian bridge that transforms the passage into an environment of resonance and crossing. Friedrich Andreoni, on the other hand, intervenes in the garden through a project that combines sound, sculpture and natural elements, further expanding the immersive component of the exhibition path.
Indeed, one of the central aspects of WAVES concerns the construction of a multisensory experience. The exhibition is accompanied by an olfactory landscape developed together with Xerjoff and conceived by Sergio Momo. The fragrance Uden Overdose was selected for the project, characterized by citrus, amber and ozone notes designed to evoke a marine dimension in continuous oscillation between surface and depth. The olfactory component is complemented by a sound contribution made by Glauk, a partner in the project together with AON.
Sanlorenzo defines support for art as a structural element of its identity rather than a mere extension of the brand. The exhibition’s production is thus presented as part of a long-term cultural vision that aims to connect the world of yachting with that of contemporary creativity.
The choice of Venice also takes an important role in the project. The city is described as a place capable of reflecting the themes addressed by the exhibition and hosting a reflection on the relationships between environment, technology and culture. In conjunction with the Venice Biennale, WAVES is thus placed within the broader panorama of cultural initiatives spread in the lagoon during the period of the international event. The exhibition remains open to the public from Wednesday to Sunday, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., in the spaces of Casa Sanlorenzo, in Dorsoduro 123 in Venice.
“For Sanlorenzo, the sea is not just a setting,” says Massimo Perotti, Executive Chairman of Sanlorenzo. “It is a condition that constantly reminds us that balance is never static, but always dynamic. Building a yacht means shaping precision within an environment that, by its nature, resists immobility. This relationship between control and unpredictability is reflected in the artistic process, and WAVES encapsulates this vision: transformation is not an exception, but the very essence of innovation and reality. This first exhibition produced exclusively by us represents a significant milestone in our cultural journey, which has evolved from collaborating with some of the most important international art events to finding a permanent home at Casa Sanlorenzo, taking an active role as cultural custodian.”
“These artists shared a radical intuition,” explains Sergio Risaliti, Director of the Museo del Novecento and co-curator of WAVES. “They understood that sculpture could no longer be conceived as a static object. Calder, Fontana and Melotti introduced a dynamic condition in which form continuously interacts with space. Their works reveal matter as something unstable, shaped by forces and energies in constant transformation.”
“The wave is not just a natural phenomenon, but a way of thinking about reality,” adds Cristiano Seganfreddo, co-curator of WAVES. “The exhibition presents a dynamic transformation, with different artistic languages converging to create a field of resonances. Here the visitor experiences the world not as a set of fixed objects, but as a system of relationships, oscillations and connections.”
“Waves are not just a phenomenon of the sea,” says Ersilia Vaudo Scarpetta. “They are the fundamental language of the universe. Light, sound and gravitational waves propagate continuously in space and time, shaping reality. What we perceive with our senses is only a small part of this vast spectrum of vibrations. Yet, it is precisely in this fragment that beauty, color and light emerge.”
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| WAVES, in Venice the first exhibition produced by Sanlorenzo Arts |
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