For art lovers traveling to Europe, don’t miss adding these summer art exhibitions in Italy to your itinerary. From once-in-a-lifetime Caravaggio masterpieces in Rome to contemporary installations in Milan and Turin, the season is filled with museum-quality exhibitions that invite deeper engagement. Here are five must-see shows across Italy, followed by a selection of other notable arts news.
Caravaggio 2025
Palazzo Barberini, Rome
Until July 6
Time is running out to see Caravaggio 2025, one of the most ambitious exhibitions ever dedicated to Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. Hosted at Palazzo Barberini, this landmark show features 24 rare and celebrated works on loan from top collections, both public and private, to mark the Jubilee Year.
Curated by Francesca Cappelletti, Maria Cristina Terzaghi, and Thomas Clement Salomon, the exhibition explores Caravaggio’s influence on the religious, artistic, and social imagination of his time. Key works include Ecce Homo, recently rediscovered and seen for the first time in Italy in over 400 years, and the early Conversion of Saint Paul, painted on an unusual cypress panel.
Also on view are some of Caravaggio’s iconic works—The Cardsharps, Saint Catherine of Alexandria, Judith Beheading Holofernes—alongside lesser-seen portraits and still lifes. For visitors, this is not just a historical show but an emotional encounter with one of Italy’s most enigmatic artists.
Website: www.barberinicorsini.org
Instagram: @barberinicorsini
Facile ironia [Easy Irony]. L’ironia nell’arte italiana tra XX e XXI secolo
MAMbo – Museo d’Arte Moderna di Bologna, Bologna
Until September 7
This institutional retrospective at MAMbo explores irony as a throughline in postwar and contemporary Italian art. Curated by Lorenzo Balbi and Caterina Molteni, the exhibition features over 100 works and archival materials from more than 70 artists, from Bruno Munari to Maurizio Cattelan.
The show unfolds thematically: irony as political critique, feminist weapon, formal paradox, and institutional satire. Works by Tomaso Binga, Michelangelo Pistoletto, and Eva & Franco Mattes demonstrate how humor becomes a subversive and sometimes radical tool. The title, Facile ironia, plays on the misconception that irony is simple when in fact it reveals deeply layered meanings.
The exhibition is part of ART CITY Bologna 2025 and coincides with the 50th anniversary of the museum’s founding.
Website: www.museibologna.it/mambo
Instagram: @mambobologna
Il vostro cielo fu mare, il vostro mare fu cielo (Your sky was sea, your sea was sky) – Adrian Paci
MUDEC – Museo delle Culture, Milan
Until September 21
Adrian Paci’s installation at MUDEC transforms the museum’s central Agorà into a poetic, immersive sea. The glass ceiling becomes a surface of cyan and teal light, composed of newsprint halftones from tragic maritime stories—evoking the invisible lives lost during Mediterranean crossings.
Curated by Sara Rizzo and Katya Inozemtseva, this project speaks to Paci’s larger body of work, where themes of migration, memory, and silence unfold through layered visuals. The piece refrains from showing trauma directly. Instead, it draws attention to the sea itself—making absence the subject.
Part of MUDEC’s larger 2025 theme on travel, the installation is an emotional and conceptual counterpoint to upcoming shows on diasporas and human movement.
Website: www.mudec.it
Instagram: @mude_official
Building Bridges – Lorenzo Quinn
Piazza XX Settembre, Martina Franca (Puglia)
Until September 1
Six pairs of monumental hands reach across Piazza XX Settembre in Lorenzo Quinn’s large-scale installation Building Bridges. This work, curated by Felicia Cigorescu and supported by the local tourism board, celebrates unity through visual poetry.
Quinn’s sculpted hands represent universal values such as love, faith, hope, and wisdom. First shown in Venice and later Barcelona, the piece now makes its southern Italy debut, establishing Martina Franca as a growing cultural destination.
Visitors are invited to pass beneath the joined hands, participating physically in a message of connection that feels especially timely.
Website: www.comune.martinafranca.ta.it
Instagram: @lorenzoquinnartist
Salvo. Arrivare in tempo
Pinacoteca Agnelli, Turin
Until August 30
Image Courtesy Pinacoteca Agnelli, Torino, © Ph. Credit Sebastiano Pellion di Persano (via press kit)
Curated by Sarah Cosulich and Lucrezia Calabrò Visconti, Arrivare in tempo is the largest-ever exhibition devoted to Salvo (1947–2015), a Sicilian-born artist who forged a singular path between conceptualism and painting.
Spanning multiple floors of Pinacoteca Agnelli including its signature Scrigno collection, the exhibition explores themes of repetition, light, and art history as language. Salvo’s structured landscapes and luminous façades suggest both timelessness and quiet rebellion. His return to painting in the early 1970s was a radical act in post-1968 Italy and remains a powerful gesture today.
The show includes a new international catalogue and was realized in collaboration with Archivio Salvo.
Website: www.pinacoteca-agnelli.it
Instagram: @pinacotecaagnelli
Other Arts News
Matteo Mauro and the Art of the Digital Gesture
Milan / Global
Matteo Mauro continues to bridge physical materials and digital algorithms with a practice grounded in both tradition and innovation. Known for his Bronze on Canvas series and early explorations into NFTs, Mauro’s work explores authorship, ornament, and entropy in equal measure.
From coded inscriptions to molten gesture, Mauro uses new tools to revisit timeless questions. He is currently developing new sculptural projects while maintaining ties to Milan’s historical and conceptual art scene.
Website: www.matteomauro.com
Instagram: @matteomaurostudio
Alicè at The Wallà Open-Air Museum
Vallà di Riese Pio X, Treviso
Street artist Alicè (Alice Pasquini) opens a new season of The Wallà, the evolving public art project in Treviso. Her mural, created in collaboration with local preschoolers, joins more than 20 others already transforming the small town into a participatory art space.
Launched in 2021, The Wallà merges urban regeneration with storytelling, supported by the BocaVerta collective and the local municipality. The project culminates in the late-summer Wonderwallà Festival, complete with installations, concerts, and artist talks.
Website: www.thewalla.it
Instagram: @the.walla
SaloneSatellite 2026 Open Call for Emerging Designers
Milan – Fiera Milano Rho
Applications open until August 30, 2025
Exhibition: April 21–26, 2026
©vLudovica Mangini (press kit)
The Salone del Mobile.Milano invites designers under 35 to apply for SaloneSatellite 2026. This platform has launched the careers of now-renowned creatives such as Oki Sato (Nendo), Cristina Celestino, and Ini Archibong.
Participants may submit three prototypes by the August deadline. Selected designers receive international exposure, mentorship, and the chance to exhibit in up to three editions.
Website: www.salonemilano.it
Instagram: @isaloniofficial
Art Across the Peninsula
Whether you begin in Turin or head south to Martina Franca, these summer art exhibitions in Italy offer a compelling lens through which to explore the country. From institutional retrospectives to community-driven public art, each experience invites reflection, wonder, and discovery. As always, Italy’s artistic legacy isn’t just preserved—it evolves in real time, across city walls, historic museums, and contemporary forums. Let these exhibitions shape your itinerary and deepen your connection to the cultural soul of the peninsula.
