Cortesi Gallery Lugano is delighted to announce its new exhibition: SPECTRUM – Art of the New Millennial from Private Collections.
The exhibition brings together an exciting selection of contemporary artworks drawn exclusively from significant private collections. SPECTRUM offers a vivid and multifaceted overview of artistic production from the early 2000s to the present, showcasing the breadth, experimentation, and expressive urgency that have defined the new millennium.
The works on view include major pieces by Stephan Balkenhol, Vanessa Beecroft, Maurizio Donzelli, Chiara Dynys, Flavio Favelli, Douglas Gordon, Candida Höfer, Julian Opie, Markus Schinwald, Ettore Spalletti, Wolfgang Tillmans, and Paola Pivi—artists who have played a crucial role in shaping today’s artistic landscape and whose practices reflect the complexity of contemporary visual culture.
Through sculpture, photography, painting, installation, and conceptual approaches, the exhibition highlights a constellation of artistic languages united by a shared desire to explore perception, identity, memory, social constructs, and the relationship between image and space. Each artist contributes a unique perspective, offering visitors the opportunity to navigate a rich spectrum of expressions and narratives.
From Balkenhol’s iconographic figures, suspended between everyday life and symbolic allegory, to Beecroft’s choreographies of the body; from Candida Höfer’s architectural portraits, imbued with silence and introspection, to the optical and perceptual investigations of Donzelli and Dynys; from the poetic rigor of Ettore Spalletti to the provocative conceptual gestures of Douglas Gordon and Paola Pivi, the exhibition spans a vibrant panorama of artistic directions. Works by Julian Opie, with his distilled visual vocabulary, and Wolfgang Tillmans, whose photography has redefined contemporary visual discourse, further enrich the show’s range and depth.
By presenting artworks from private collections—often rarely accessible to the public—SPECTRUM also reflects on the crucial role of collecting in preserving, interpreting, and supporting the evolution of contemporary art. The exhibition invites viewers to discover how personal choices, sensibilities, and passions of collectors contribute to shaping broader cultural narratives.
With its diverse voices and wide-ranging aesthetic approaches, SPECTRUM – Art of the New Millennial from Private Collections aims to offer an immersive experience, shedding light on the pluralism and dynamism that characterise the art of our time.