The Ramo Collection presents the fourth edition of Milano Drawing Week, a 13-stage journey dedicated to drawing, including contemporary artists and masters of the last century.
For nine days, works on paper take center stage in exhibitions in museums and galleries throughout Milan’s urban network.
The Ramo Collection, Italian Drawing of the 20th and 21st Centuries, presents, from Saturday, November 23 to Sunday, December 1, 2024, the fourth edition of Milano Drawing Week, an annual event realized in collaboration with and under the patronage of the Department of Culture of the City of Milan. The project takes shape in a constellation of exhibitions spread throughout the Milanese territory, presenting the work of historicized artists, active on the current scene or emerging, to enhance the production on paper and promote its knowledge among an increasingly broad audience.
The project formula calls for the Ramo Collection to open to the city, selecting works on paper by 20th-century Italian artists available to cultural institutions and galleries. Artists of different origins and generations, active in the drawing field, are invited to choose a work from this nucleus from the Ramo Collection to be placed in dialogue with their research within one of the 13 spaces involved.
The aim is to make the significant historical and artistic heritage guarded by the Collection dialogue with the instances that nourish current research while also offering the public an opportunity to delve into a little visible medium that unites creatives of all disciplines and is capable of speaking with immediacy to the entire public.
The route of Milano Drawing Week 2024 involves three civic institutions such as Castello Sforzesco and, for the first time,the Cittadella degli Archivi of the City of Milan and Casa degli Artisti, joined by ten art galleries from Milan and beyond: Ciaccia Levi, kaufmann repetto, Loom Gallery, Monica De Cardenas, Nashira Gallery, Settantaventidue, Spazio Lima, Vistamare, with the special participation of APALAZZOGALLERY from Brescia and Ex Elettrofonica from Rome, two galleries that for the first time participate by finding hospitality in the city.
Milan Drawing Week presents the work of artists Alexandra Barth (Malacky, Slovakia, 1989), Monia Ben Hamouda (Milan, 1991), Sergio Breviario (Bergamo, 1974), Corydon Cowansage (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, 1985), Giulia Dall Olio (Bologna, 1983), Leonardo Devito (Florence, 1997), Tom Friedman (Louis Park, Minnesota, United States, 1953), Alex Katz (Brooklyn, New York, United States, 1927), Marco Paleari (Desio, 1998), Nathlie Provosty (Cincinnati, Ohio, United States, 1981) in dialogue with those of great masters of the last century such as: Enrico Baj (Milan, 1924 – Vergiate, 2003), Irma Blank (Celle, Germany, 1934 – Milan, 2023), Alberto Burri (Città di Castello, 1915 – Nice, France, 1995), Domenico Gnoli (Rome, 1933 – New York, New York, United States, 1970), Piero Manzoni (Soncino, 1933 – Milan, 1963), Fausto Melotti (Rovereto, 1901 – Milan, 1986), Mario Merz (Milan, 1925 – Turin, 2003), Michelangelo Pistoletto (Biella, 1933), Carol Rama (Turin, 1918 – Turin, 2015), and Emilio Scanavino (Genoa, 1922 – Milan, 1986), in an exhibition oriented to bring new light to the expressive medium of drawing.
The project, entirely conceived and organized by Collezione Ramo, then includes the major Brazilian exhibition from Paulo Bruscky ‘s archive, which for the first time involves an international curator, Jacopo Crivelli Visconti, in Milano Drawing Week ; the solo show of Manuel Scano Larrazàbal, the first one produced by Collezione Ramo for the occasion; and, as part of the exhibition Alberto Martini e la danza macabra, curated and produced by the Gabinetto dei Disegni in the Salette della Grafica of Castello Sforzesco, there will be a focus dedicated to the dialogue between the macabre ink strokes of Alberto Martini (Oderzo, 1876 – Milan, 1954) and Vincenzo Agnetti (Milan, 1926 – 1980).
A schedule of collateral events, spread throughout the event from Saturday, Nov. 23 to Sunday, Dec. 1, enriches the program by including public meetings with internationally prominent curators and workshops with artists and teachers exploring the infinite potential of work on paper.
Also returning for the second year is the Milan Drawing Week Prize, among the few awards dedicated to drawing in Italy, awarded to one of the participating contemporary artists. The Prize, supported entirely by Gruppo Censeo, consists of a cash award of €3,000 to incentivize continuity in production on paper. The previous edition’s winner is artist Umberto Chiodi, with the work Bestiary (2023).
WHAT’S NEW IN THIS EDITION
Institutional collaborations
While the prestigious collaboration with the Castello Sforzesco’s Drawings Cabinet is renewed, which presents the exhibition Alberto Martini: the Macabre Dance, in the form of a silent dialogue between the work of Alberto Martini and that of Vincenzo Agnetti, the Cittadella degli Archivi of the City of Milan and Casa degli Artisti are participating for the first time in Milano Drawing Week.
The Cittadella degli Archivi will host the group exhibition Political Attitude. Artists of Latin America from the Paulo Bruscky Archive dedicated to Paulo Bruscky, exhibited in Italy for the first time since its presentation at the Instituto de Arte contemporanea IAC in São Paulo curated by Jacopo Crivelli Visconti in 2023. The exhibition features works that escaped the censorship of Latin America’s dictatorships and were collected in the Brazilian artist’s postal art archive, never before exhibited outside Brazil’s borders-a European premiere exclusively for Milan Design Week.
The Artists’ House hosts the exhibition Rampant Paper and Drawing Tool by Manuel Scano Larrazàbal: a large installation that includes a giant rotating drawing and a machine that draws in real time with suspended markers, produced and curated by Ramo Collection and made entirely from Canson and Lyra products.
The exhibition curated by Irina Zucca Alessandrelli, curator of the Ramo Collection.
Another new feature of this edition is the exhibition curated by Irina Zucca Alessandrelli at the Settantaventidue space, the new hub on the Navigli that combines sound art, books, and architecture to promote new talents who are dedicated to creation on paper. The exhibition presents the work of a young emerging artist, Marco Paleari, who has not yet been represented by a gallery, in dialogue with the work of nuclear art master Enrico Baj.
The new calendar of workshops
Finally, debuting in this edition is a program of workshops on drawing practice designed to be accessible and engaging to all audiences. The calendar includes workshops with structured activities for adults and children, aimed at creating an elaborate work that is different each time and allows them to experiment with the many techniques that characterize work on paper.
The workshops will be held at Casa degli Artisti with artist Manuel Scano Larrazàbal, Casa Platform with Martina Zena, and the Ceramica Sant’Agostino showroom with Monika Dattner.