Curated by Anna Mattirolo

Chi è Francesco Vezzoli? No mere survey exhibition, “Galleria Vezzoli” intends to answer this riddle via an investigation of the artist’s identity. Staging a chronological display of some ninety works drawn from his eighteen-year, star-studded, jet-setting career, the show will place special emphasis on the self-portrait—which may prove useful for decrypting (in advance of this fall’s “Church of Vezzoli” at MoMA PS1 in New York and “Cinema Vezzoli” at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles) whether Vezzoli is an enthusiastic adept of the celebrity-industrial complex or a true cultural critic–cum–social gadfly in the tradition of Cocteau, Dalí, and Warhol. Fittingly, given the artist’s penchant for grand gestures, MAXXI will be publishing a sizable retrospective catalogue in two languages with contributions from Douglas Fogle, Chrissie Iles, and the curator, among others.

— Alison M. Gingeras