Cardi Gallery (originally ‘Galleria Cardi') was founded in Milan, Italy in April 1972 by Renato Cardi to foster the work of those modern and contemporary Italian artists that he had started to presciently collect in the late 1960s. Renato built a distinguished collection that included artists like Cy Twombly, Lucio Fontana, Piero Manzoni and many others, all relatively unknown at the time, and over the years acquired works ranging from Arte Povera to Spatialism. Thanks to both his inextinguishable passion for art and the subsequent success of Galleria Cardi, Renato earned a reputation as a critically engaged champion of developing artists, one who contributed significantly to launching many of their careers.
Now led by Renato’s son Nicolo, Cardi Gallery continues to shape the cultural landscape in its hometown, Milan and since 2016 in London, its second home. It presents a regular programme of museum-quality exhibitions, each accompanied by a scholarly catalogue or an artist monograph often featuring texts by eminent international critics.
Furthermore, Cardi Gallery exhibits at the top international art fairs across Asia, Europe and North America. Its presentations focus on masterworks by artists from movements such as Arte Povera, Minimalism and Zero Group, part of Cardi’s extensive Italian Modern, Post-War, and contemporary inventory.
Cardi Gallery’s unique specialist expertise in Italian Modern, Post-War and Contemporary art – specifically in Arte Povera, Minimalism and Zero Group – has not only contributed to shaping significant exhibitions through its international museums' loan programme: it has built some of the finest and most historically important private collections across Europe, the Americas and Asia.
