MASSIMODECARLO gallery, founded in 1987, has always stood out for its courageous and counter-current choices, guaranteeing visibility and support for artists such as John Armleder, Olivier Mosset, Steven Parrino and Carsten Höller. Over the years, the gallery’s program has welcomed young artists and world-famous masters such as Alighiero Boetti, Cady Noland, Rudolf Stingel, Jennifer Guidi, Jenna Gribbon, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Diane Dal-Pra, Ferrari Sheppard, Lily Stockman and Maurizio Cattelan.
Today the gallery continues to play a fundamental role both in promoting Italian artists to the international audience and in bringing the most interesting voices of contemporary art to the attention of the international art scene, encouraging the establishment of a stimulating dialogue between artists, institutions, critics, curators and collectors.
For over 35 years, MASSIMODECARLO has boasted collaboration with over sixty multifaceted artists, who combine great expressive variety with an extraordinary combination of artistic languages such as painting, drawing, installation, sculpture, photography, performance and video.
The gallery has exhibition spaces in Milan, London, Hong Kong, Paris, Beijing and virtually, with Vspace. Opened in Milan in 1987, MASSIMODECARLO moved its headquarters in 2019, to the iconic spaces of Casa Corbellini Wassermann, built in the early Thirties (1934-1936) by the historic Italian architect Piero Portaluppi.Initially designed to be a building for private use, the space presents precious details in the use of rare materials, such as the various types of marble that make up the interiors and the outside. The house is one of the most illustrious examples of Milanese rationalist architecture.
Incredibly full of history, the space opened to the public following a renovation and a philological conservative restoration by Studio Binocle with the consultancy of Antonio Citterio and contributes to creating a source of inspiration for the artists of the gallery, and beyond alone.
In 2009 the Gallery inaugurated a branch in London. Located from 2022 at 16 Clifford Street, in the heart of Mayfair, on the first floor of a building of historical and cultural interest built in 1723, the London exhibition venue features original details largely left intact. Designed by London-based PiM Studio Architects, the space aspires to become a model of alternative exhibition in the contemporary art system.
In March 2016 Massimo De Carlo inaugurated his first gallery in Asia, in Hong Kong, located inside the Pedder Building in Central. In 2022 the location moved to the Tai Kwun - Center for Heritage and Arts complex - a historic building that hosts a large variety of cultural projects, whose renovation and revaluation took place in 2006 by the Swiss studio Herzog & de Meuron.
MASSIMODECARLO created Virtual Space in April 2020: a new flexible and immersive art world experience.
MASSIMODECARLO Virtual Space is the first virtual space of its kind in the world: built with the best technologies, VSpace represents an immersive experience that allows each visitor to enter the virtual space, via our site or via the Oculus glasses hardware system. In addition, given its digital identity, VSpace is entirely flexible and adaptable to any exhibition scenario: it is the first environment that depends on the works of art, and not vice versa.
In 2021 the gallery inaugurated a new space in Paris called MASSIMODECARLO Pièce Unique, offering a flexible and dynamic program of exhibitions of single works, visible day and night through a street window. MASSIMODECARLO Pièce Unique was born from the acquisition of the brand “Pièce Unique”, an adventurous space by the iconic gallerist Lucio Amelio, opened in Paris in 1989 and designed with Cy Twombly. Today, MASSIMODECARLO Pièce Unique relaunches the legacy of this historic project, renewing its original idea in a space reimagined by architectural firms Kengo Kuma and PiM Studio, infusing a new perspective and offering an alternative exhibition model for the contemporary art system, in line with the pioneering spirit of the gallery.
Opening as a pop-up space in November 2021, the gallery establishes its presence in Beijing in 2022 with MASSIMODECARLO Beijing Permanent Space, a space designed as a flexible exhibition platform, located within the Blanc International Art Space cultural complex in Beijing’s Shunyi district.
In July 2023 Massimo De Carlo announced the creation of a new
Foundation for Contemporary Art in the Municipality of Belveglio (AT), following of the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between the Province of Asti, the Municipality of Belveglio, the Val Tiglione Hill Community and surrounding areas, and the Langhe Monferrato Roero Tourism Board.
The new Foundation will be the first private center dedicated to contemporary art in the province of Asti and will offer a unique cultural experience to all its visitors. The creation of the foundation’s architectural master plan was entrusted to architect Valerio Olgiati, professor at the Mendrisio Academy of Architecture at the University of Italian Switzerland, as well as designer of numerous public buildings of extraordinary quality. Valerio Olgiati was also commissioned to create the central building of the Foundation which will be dedicated to the exhibition of international contemporary works of art.
The Foundation will not just be an exhibition venue: in fact, the program of the new institution includes the offer of residencies with spaces specifically dedicated to the development of the most current artistic practices which will also be a driving force to encourage collaboration between artists and the surrounding area. The Foundation will also be able to count on a series of flexible infrastructures and services that can accommodate the most diverse cultural practices, not limited to the visual arts alone, as well as offering an open platform to host events and projects of and for the territory. The laying of the first stone is scheduled for 2024.