30 YEARS

Maurizio Arcangeli - Stephan Balkenhol - Lupo Borgonovo - Valerio Carrubba - Chung Eun-Mo - Philip-Lorca diCorcia - Rä di Martino - Gianluca Di Pasquale - Peter Doig - Linda Fregni Nagler - Francesca Gabbiani - Silvia Gertsch - Craigie Horsfield - Chantal Joffe - Alex Katz - Khalif Kelly - Juul Kraijer - Claudia Losi - Lutz & Guggisberg - Esko Männikkö - Julian Opie - Gabriel Orozco - Barbara Probst - Markus Raetz - Gideon Rubin - Jean-Frédéric Schnyder - Ivan Seal - Benjamin Senior - Hannah Starkey - John Stezaker - Christine Streuli - Thomas Struth - Federico Tosi - Franco Vimercati

30 Years is an exhibition to celebrate three decades of history of the gallery opened by Monica De Cardenas on Via Francesco Viganò in Milan, at a time when locals and tourists alike saw the neighborhood of Porta Nuova and the Garibaldi station as the outskirts of town. Today this urban area has become central, a true symbol of the city. Amidst the skyscrapers of Piazza Gae Aulenti and the Bosco Verticale, near Fondazione Feltrinelli and the promenade of Corso Como, the gallery has conserved its original intimate and welcoming atmosphere: a large apartment on the ground floor, with the characteristics and colors of a building from the late 1930s, not facing the street but with the view on a courtyard and a garden. The works of art are displayed and understood in a space that closely resembles a private home.

Showing international stars and young talents alike, with a passion for conceptual photography and figurative painting, for clear, rigorous but also poetic images: these have been the guidelines of the gallery’s choices from the outset. In early 1993, the space hosted the first solo exhibition in Italy by Thomas Struth, one of the leading figures of the new German - and then worldwide - photography, with works made specifically for the occasion, belonging to two of the artist’s main lines of research: street photography – in Milan, in this case – and large color images of interiors of Italian museums. One year later came the first exhibition by Markus Raetz, bringing the Anamorphoses to Italy for the first time, his famous sculptures that take on different appearances according to the vantage point we look at them. In 1997, when the great American master was still relatively unknown in Europe, the gallery hosted the first of a series of exhibition by Alex Katz, who is now in the spotlight – at the age of 95 – at the Guggenheim in New York, with an extraordinary retrospective lasting until 20 February 2023.

In the early 2000s, in contrast with the mainstream trend of the time, the gallery focused even more on figurative painting, presenting exhibitions by artists such as Peter Doig, Chantal Joffe and Benjamin Senior.

In 2007 Monica De Cardenas opened a second branch in Zuoz near St Moritz in Switzerland, where she featured exhibitions by masters of Italian modern and contemporary art like Marisa Merz, Fausto Melotti and Gianni Colombo, in the unique setting of an Engadin house from the 14th century. At the same time, the gallery continued its research and commitment to the promotion of emerging Italian talents like Claudia Losi, Gianluca Di Pasquale, Rä di Martino, Linda Fregni Nagler and Federico Tosi.

The artists of the latest solo shows presented by Monica De Cardenas include the German photographer Barbara Probst and Wangari Mathenge, an African American artist (born in Nairobi, now living in Chicago), who showed work at the gallery last Fall in a solo presentation that was also her first in Europe. In her powerful paintings she interprets the multiple aspects of her identity and memory. Two artists differing in terms of cultural background and use of media, but sharing an analogous creative vision: they urge the viewers to use their imagination, producing continuous and personal interpretations, connections, discoveries and new perspectives. An invitation Monica De Cardenas extends to the visitors of the upcoming exhibition.

Maurizio Arcangeli - Stephan Balkenhol - Lupo Borgonovo - Valerio Carrubba - Chung Eun-Mo - Philip-Lorca diCorcia - Rä di Martino - Gianluca Di Pasquale - Peter Doig - Linda Fregni Nagler - Francesca Gabbiani - Silvia Gertsch - Craigie Horsfield - Chantal Joffe - Alex Katz - Khalif Kelly - Juul Kraijer - Claudia Losi - Lutz & Guggisberg - Esko Männikkö - Julian Opie - Gabriel Orozco - Barbara Probst - Markus Raetz - Gideon Rubin - Jean-Frédéric Schnyder - Ivan Seal - Benjamin Senior - Hannah Starkey - John Stezaker - Christine Streuli - Thomas Struth - Federico Tosi - Franco Vimercati