Emilio Scanavino Tramatura, 1975 Oil on canvas 60 x 60 cm 23 5/8 x 23 5/8 inches Exhibited 2024, IT, Milano, Dep Art, Scanavino. Dare forma, text by Amanda Nicoli, p. 39 Signed on the reverse Dep Art Gallery
Dep Art Gallery opened in Milan in 2006 with Mario Nigro’s solo exhibition Opere di Mario Nigro and presents compelling artworks by modern and contemporary Italian and international artists.
The gallery moved into its current location in Via Comelico, a former school with substantial exhibition spaces, in 2015.
Celebrating two decades of activity, Dep Art Gallery presents the group exhibition 20 Years from June 24 to December 19, 2026.
Dedicated to presenting contemporary Italian art, Dep Art Gallery has also served as the Turi Simeti archive centre since 2013, archiving the artist’s legacy and producing a catalogue raisonné of artworks on canvas.
The gallery’s programme focuses significantly on the legacy of Kinetic and Op art, representing pioneers such as Alberto Biasi, Carlos Cruz-Diez, and Ludwig Wilding.
Alberto Biasi is one of the most significant post-War Italian artists and a founder of Gruppo N, creating optical artworks that hover between two and three dimensions.
Carlos Cruz-Diez was a French-Venezuelan artist who focused on the perceptive experience of colour in his paintings, sculptures, and installations.
Ludwig Wilding was a German artist known for his mostly black-and-white works in diverse media including sculpture, screenprint, and serigraph.
Dep Art also represents senior Italian artists who engage with colour and geometric abstraction, including Pino Pinelli, Alighiero Boetti, and Turi Simeti. Pino Pinelli paints without a canvas to create geometric mixed-media wall sculptures that give the impression of a deconstructed canvas.
Alighiero Boetti was a central figure in Arte Povera who collaborated with embroiderers in the 1970s to produce tapestries exploring notions of time, order, and travel.
Turi Simeti produced monochrome relief paintings in black, white, and vivid hues featuring his trademark ellipse.
Younger generations of contemporary artists at Dep Art include Tony Oursler, Regine Schumann, and Wolfram Ullrich.
Tony Oursler is an internationally acclaimed American artist known for his humorous and uncanny video installations.
Cologne-based Regine Schumann investigates the relations between colour, light, and architecture in her fluorescent acrylic light sculptures and room-specific installations.
Stuttgart-based Wolfram Ullrich employs unconventional materials such as steel as the canvas for his bright, monochrome colour palette.
The gallery participates in numerous international art fairs, including Art Brussels, Art Cologne, The Armory Show, Expo Chicago, PAN Amsterdam, Investec Cape Town, miart, Artissima, Arte Fiera Bologna, and ArtVerona.
Emilio Scanavino 1980, Evento n.1 Oil on canvas 60 x 60 cm 23 5/8 x 23 5/8 inches Dep Art Gallery Request Price &
Recent exhibitions have been dedicated to artists such as Imi Knoebel and Valerio Adami.
The gallery organises exhibitions and initiatives in both public institutions and galleries across Italy and abroad, featuring artists such as Valerio Adami, Imi Knoebel, Carlos Cruz-Diez, Tony Oursler, Regine Schumann, Wolfram Ullrich, Alighiero Boetti, Salvo, Mario Nigro, Henk Peeters, Jan Schoonhoven, Alberto Biasi, Emilio Scanavino, Turi Simeti, Pino Pinelli, Ludwig Wilding, and Emilio Vedova.
Emilio Scanavino became a protagonist in the Italian art scene in the 1950s with a highly personal style that linked to and distinguished itself from the Informal movement.
He was repeatedly present at the Venice Biennale, receiving a dedicated personal room in 1960 and winning the Pinin Farina Award in 1966.
Scanavino exhibited in leading Italian galleries and held personal shows abroad in cities including London, Paris, Brussels, Copenhagen, Hamburg, Malmö, and Philadelphia.
Between 1973 and 1974, three major anthologies were held for him at the Darmstadt Kunsthalle, Palazzo Grassi in Venice, and Palazzo Reale in Milan.
Major critics wrote monographic volumes about his work, and following his death in Milan in 1986, important retrospectives were held at the Villa Croce Museum of Contemporary Art in Genoa, Castle Doria in Porto Venere, and the Civic Gallery of Modena.
Exhibition view: Group Exhibition, 20 Years, Dep Art Gallery, Milan (24 June–19 December 2026). Courtesy Dep Art Gallery.
The physical layout of the exhibition follows a deliberate spatial and narrative sequence.
It begins with a work by Mario Nigro, whom founder and director Antonio Addamiano selected for the gallery’s debut exhibition in 2006 at its original location on Via Giuriati.
Moving to the lower level, visitors encounter the gallery’s foundational history arranged in chronological order. Featuring artists such as Alberto Gianquinto, Salvo, Alberto Biasi, Emilio Scanavino, and Pino Pinelli, this floor maps the early years through figures who forged Dep Art's core identity.
Pinelli’s work serves as the final highlight of the lower floor, marking the last solo show hosted at the original venue and representing a transition to the gallery's next chapter.
The narrative expands on the upper level, picking up in 2015 when the gallery inaugurated its expanded space on Via Comelico with a solo show by Turi Simeti.
The timeline continues through works by Piero Fogliati, Alighiero Boetti, Wolfram Ullrich, Carlos Cruz-Diez, Regine Schumann, Imi Knoebel, and Gerold Miller.
This selection illustrates the evolution of the gallery’s artistic inquiry while maintaining an unwavering commitment to art that examines perception, space, material, and memory.
Throughout these twenty years, many landmark exhibitions were realized in close partnership with highly skilled curators, fostering long-term relationships grounded in trust and mutual respect.
A shared dedication to artistic vision, scholarly research, meaningful relationships, and intellectual risk has guided every choice in Dep Art Gallery’s history and continues to drive its ongoing mission.
Exhibition view: Group Exhibition, 20 Years, Dep Art Gallery, Milan (24 June–19 December 2026). Courtesy Dep Art Gallery.Exhibition view: Group Exhibition, 20 Years, Dep Art Gallery, Milan (24 June–19 December 2026). Courtesy Dep Art Gallery. Exhibition view: Group Exhibition, 20 Years, Dep Art Gallery, Milan (24 June–19 December 2026). Courtesy Dep Art Gallery.
