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Contemporary Art: Tommaso Calabro gallery arte contemporanea Milano - Giuseppe Alletto visual artist
Five years have passed since, in September 2018, the young gallery owner Tommaso Calabro opened the doors of the main floor of Palazzo Marietti. The historic Milanese building, in Piazza San Sepolcro, was the setting for a rich series of exhibitions by protagonists of the twentieth century. More or less famous artists, but all connected to each other, animated the nineteenth-century rooms, weaving a dialogue capable of going beyond the walls. Until touching the Renaissance suggestions of the nearby Pinacoteca Ambrosiana. But now, like it or not, it's time to change direction. And the reason is explained to us by the person directly involved, with whom we have retraced the entire history, anticipating the future.
Although you are already ready to inaugurate a new chapter, your story as a gallery owner has a recent beginning. How did you get to Piazza San Sepolcro?
After graduating from Bocconi in 2012, I followed two master's degrees at the Courtauld Institute of Arts and Kings College in London, and then I started working in galleries. I was hired by Nahmad Projects: a London gallery that I directed for three years. Intense years, full of projects, which prepared me to return to Milan, with the intention of opening a space of my own.
The reasons behind the choice of Palazzo Marietti? How did you get the space?
I found the rental advertisement online. It convinced me immediately: it had an aesthetic that suited my idea of a gallery perfectly. I wasn't looking for the usual white cube, perhaps even very large and with lots of available walls, but extremely neutral and impersonal. I wanted a container of history: a characteristic building, capable of telling something together with the works that I would exhibit there. My intent was, and still is, to create a narrative within each exhibition. This is only possible if you have more rooms available, and with a past already behind you. Palazzo Marietti was ideal for this function.
Let's now talk about these first years of Milanese history. What did you start with?
The first exhibition I organized in 2018 was a tribute to the Italian gallerist Carlo Cardazzo, with two artists who were particularly favorites of him. Cy Twombly and Tancredi Parmeggiani.
And then? Which artists did you continue with, and how did you deal with the Covid period?
From there, I continued with Dubuffet, another artist linked to Cardazzo, of whom I proposed, in addition to the drawings on paper, some period videos and a soundtrack. Another important exhibition was the one on Alexander Iolas, a great art dealer of the late twentieth century who brought the surrealists to New York, and organized Warhol's first and last exhibition. Precisely in that period (it was autumn 2020), when Milan was in the Orange Zone, I had many visitors. Due to Covid, museums were closed, but people continued to want to immerse themselves in art. The only places open were the galleries, so I even got a hundred, or even a hundred and fifty visitors a day. The business continued, albeit at a distance, and so I also got through those difficult months.
You said you chose Palazzo Marietti because it responded to your idea of a gallery capable of developing narratives. Is each exhibition story unique, or is there a common thread behind the exhibitions of recent years?
From the beginning I tried to create a common thread between the choices to present certain artists. First I brought characters linked to Cardazzo to the gallery, and then I continued with others who were somehow linked to each other. Fini and Lepri, for example, were both treated by Iolas, who was in turn connected to the previous ones. All of this is to say that no exhibition stands alone: they are part of a single continuous narrative. At least for me, who can see certain aesthetic affinities, there is always a closeness between the authors.
And what about your collector side? What is your relationship with the “gallery owner Tommaso”?
Being both is not easy. Before being a gallery owner, I am a collector. I purchase the works in advance, and I generally orient myself towards surrealist and twentieth-century artists because I like them and am passionate about them. The idea of having an exhibition comes later, and is not a given. Of the authors I cover, I always try to keep a few pieces. For passion, before for commercial reasons.
You have recently announced the last act in the Piazza San Sepolcro scene. Why this change?
It wasn't a choice, but a necessity. The owners of the building where I am renting have decided to sell it. And it is not known what its future destination will be. I took the opportunity to do something new, while remaining in Milan. But first, the last exhibition here.
Emma Sedini
