Elisabetta Catalano | MAXXI Museum
Viasaterna is pleased to announce the exhibition Focus Elisabetta Catalano. Obiettivo sugli artisti, curated by Laura Cherubini, at MAXXI – National Museum of 21st Century Arts.
The exhibition presents a selection of sixteen prints recently acquired by the Museum thanks to the Strategia Fotografia (2023) programme promoted by the Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity of the Ministry of Culture. Through portraiture, Elisabetta Catalano explores the artistic and cultural climate of her time, offering images that have become iconic in the history of contemporary art. In her shots, psychological introspection and creative vitality coexist, in the attempt to convey the joy of those who transform their thoughts into works.
The exhibition opens with a selection of official portraits and contact sheets from the Elisabetta Catalano Archive, revealing the artist’s meticulous method: exposure times, exchanged glances, encounters and partnerships that accompanied the creation of the frames that have entered the history of contemporary imagery.
It continues with a broad fresco of the art world from the 1970s to the 2000s, through the faces of some of its protagonists: Carla Accardi, Alighiero Boetti, Enzo Cucchi, Francesco Clemente, Michelle Coudray, Gino De Dominicis, Luciano Fabro, H.H. Lim, Fabio Mauri, Eliseo Mattiacci, Marisa and Mario Merz, Michelangelo Pistoletto with Maria Pioppi, Maurizio Mochetti, Vettor Pisani, Remo Salvadori with Sally Benjamin, Mario Schifano, and Lawrence Weiner.
The exhibition concludes by highlighting the new acquisitions that enrich the MAXXI Collection, which already holds a series of twelve shots dedicated to Gilbert & George, four vintage prints donated by the Catalano Archive on the occasion of the 2019 Focus d’Archivio, and five author portraits belonging to the Photography Collection of MAXXI Contemporary Architecture and Design.
The exhibition is realised in collaboration with the Elisabetta Catalano Archive.
Focus Elisabetta Catalano. Obiettivo sugli artisti
curated by Laura Cherubini
26 November 2025 – 8 March 2026
MAXXI – National Museum of 21st Century Arts
Carlo Scarpa Foyer
Via Guido Reni 4A
00196 Rome
Opening hours
Tuesday – Sunday, 11 am–7 pm
The exhibition presents a selection of sixteen prints recently acquired by the Museum thanks to the Strategia Fotografia (2023) programme promoted by the Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity of the Ministry of Culture. Through portraiture, Elisabetta Catalano explores the artistic and cultural climate of her time, offering images that have become iconic in the history of contemporary art. In her shots, psychological introspection and creative vitality coexist, in the attempt to convey the joy of those who transform their thoughts into works.
The exhibition opens with a selection of official portraits and contact sheets from the Elisabetta Catalano Archive, revealing the artist’s meticulous method: exposure times, exchanged glances, encounters and partnerships that accompanied the creation of the frames that have entered the history of contemporary imagery.
It continues with a broad fresco of the art world from the 1970s to the 2000s, through the faces of some of its protagonists: Carla Accardi, Alighiero Boetti, Enzo Cucchi, Francesco Clemente, Michelle Coudray, Gino De Dominicis, Luciano Fabro, H.H. Lim, Fabio Mauri, Eliseo Mattiacci, Marisa and Mario Merz, Michelangelo Pistoletto with Maria Pioppi, Maurizio Mochetti, Vettor Pisani, Remo Salvadori with Sally Benjamin, Mario Schifano, and Lawrence Weiner.
The exhibition concludes by highlighting the new acquisitions that enrich the MAXXI Collection, which already holds a series of twelve shots dedicated to Gilbert & George, four vintage prints donated by the Catalano Archive on the occasion of the 2019 Focus d’Archivio, and five author portraits belonging to the Photography Collection of MAXXI Contemporary Architecture and Design.
The exhibition is realised in collaboration with the Elisabetta Catalano Archive.
Focus Elisabetta Catalano. Obiettivo sugli artisti
curated by Laura Cherubini
26 November 2025 – 8 March 2026
MAXXI – National Museum of 21st Century Arts
Carlo Scarpa Foyer
Via Guido Reni 4A
00196 Rome
Opening hours
Tuesday – Sunday, 11 am–7 pm