Who is today's contemporary art gallery audience? Interview with two gallery owners

Alessia Calarota is the director of Galleria d’Arte Maggiore g.a.m., founded in Bologna in 1978 by Franco and Roberta Calarota, which over the decades has managed, thanks to a collection of high-level works, to establish itself on the international art scene. Tommaso Calabro, on the other hand, is the director of the gallery of the same name, a young gallery, founded in 2018 in Milan, which with its projects, not least that of “Casa Iolas” in collaboration with artist Francesco Vezzoli, is trying to make its way in the difficult scenario of the contemporary art market. With them today we want to open a debate on the role of art galleries in Italy and why the gallery audience has changed in recent years.

Alessia Calarota

Tommaso Calabro

FDV: Dear Alessia and Tommaso, in the “golden decades” of art galleries (I’m talking mainly about the period between the 1960s and early 1980s), galleries were not only places of sale, but also spaces that encouraged artistic experimentation and the discovery of new artists, as well as places of exchange and design. What is an art gallery today? What are its purposes beyond sales? Do you think art galleries can still be considered places of experimentation?

AC: From an article by Francesco Bonami that appeared in Repubblica in 2019: “the Spalletti I remember most is the one I saw a few years ago in Bologna at the Galleria d’Arte Maggiore where his works were placed next to those of Morandi [...] Morandi’s bottles and Spalletti’s spaces were like voices in a duet between two sopranos. Lightness and power. Two qualities that only a few great masters have been able to create and control in the history of art.” Reviews such as this one show how our work still has relevance for proposing new keys to interpreting already well-known artists, as well as for disseminating knowledge about artists in whom we believe. And speaking of the latter, when nominations come in for future Biennials, it is a tremendous satisfaction to have accompanied them before and to continue to do so during and after.

TC: As you say, Francesca, in the 1960s art was made in galleries. Gallery owners were linked to artists and collectors not only by professional relationships, but also by mutual esteem and friendship. This aspect has gradually been lost, in favor of the speculative marketing of art and the rise of mega-galleries. Many artists have become unattainable and the exchange of ideas that was originally the beating heart of the art gallery has been lost. Today everything is more codified, contractualized, and the market plays a central role in the art world. However, there are still realities that continue to pay attention to the quality of their projects and relationships with artists and collectors. This is what I try to do in my gallery, which I conceived as a place open to everyone where I can propose an interdisciplinary approach to the arts, between modern and contemporary.

FDV: I have another question for both of you. The writer has the impression that art galleries today are no longer interested, or are less interested, in addressing not only collectors, but also scholars in general. In Germany, where I live and work, galleries are careful to address almost only the public to whom they sell, which is why if you visit a museum you will find it full of students, art lovers and scholars; galleries, on the other hand, remain an “elite place,” exclusive only to those who buy. What is the situation in Italy? What is your target audience? Why do you think (if it is, as I think) the art gallery audience has changed from what it was a few decades ago?

AC: In the last decade globalization has also touched the art world, and many gallery owners have set up their business following the dictates of the industry. Maggiore g.a.m. Art Gallery was founded in 1978 by my parents, Franco and Roberta Calarota, as a meeting place for artists, scholars and collectors. Since then we have always adhered to this model: a system with a strong human component that supports the demands of an international market where people can meet in person and build a personal path in art. A classic gallery: a place for meeting, debate, orientation and taste formation. In line with this principle, two “home galleries” were born to flank the mother house in Bologna: the one in Milan in 2016 and the one in Paris in 2008, places open by invitation only and known only through word of mouth by a few selected friends of friends including scholars, enthusiasts and the curious, who take their time here to delve into themes and authors.

TC: Some Italian galleries lack ongoing relationships with scholars and art historians, which are the order of the day in the Anglo-Saxon world, but I think we are slowly moving in that direction. In my gallery I have collaborated with art historians and curators such as Luca Massimo Barbero, Alberto Salvadori, Sharon Hecker, Aline Guillermet and Paola Nicolin on exhibitions and catalogs, and I am sure there will be new opportunities for such collaborations. At the level of the public, we welcome collectors, gallerists, art historians, journalists, as well as students, art lovers and the curious in the gallery. I think in a way, galleries in Italy are also becoming more democratic. They often offer museum-level exhibitions (I’m thinking for example of the latest William Kentridge exhibition at Lia Rumma in Milan) that are open to everyone for free.

FDV: Alessia Calarota has taken over the reins of the Galleria d’Arte Maggiore in Bologna, a job that certainly involves being able to tie the family tradition to a new perspective, her own. How does she do it?

AC: Actually precisely because we are a family, I like that there is a comparison and exchange between different generations. I see this as a fundamental added value, not only in the management, but also in our proposals of artists from different eras, but all contemporary in their language, and in the exhibition program that often puts in dialogue either those same artists who are chronologically not the same age or worlds belonging to different disciplines. Two recent examples are the 2015 art and design exhibition that we took to Bologna, Milan and Venice and the dialogue between Joan Miró and Antoni Clavé at the fair in New York.

FDV: Tommaso, leaving your job at Sotheby’s in Milan in 2018 and founding your own gallery in the heart of the city where competition in the field is very high implies no small amount of courage. What prompted her to take this step? How did your London education and work experiences help you?

TC: I always knew that one day I would have my own gallery. My studies at Bocconi and the Courtauld Institute gave me the foundation to be able to work in an auction house like Sotheby’s. It was there that I met the Nahmads, my future employers in London, by talking to a family member during an auction without knowing who he was. What began as a chance encounter became pivotal to my career: shortly thereafter, in fact, I was running Nahmad Projects in London, an experience that brought me in contact with players in the international art world. In 2018, at the age of twenty-eight, I decided to set up on my own, in a city to which I am attached and in which I would find less competition than in London. Not having a family yet and having a completely free mind, taking a risk seemed natural.

FDV: The ’latest project, “Casa Iolas,” in collaboration with the artist Vezzoli, puts the emphasis on a gallerist who has been almost forgotten, Alexander Iolas, and on a gallery culture that perhaps no longer exists, namely one based on personal relationships, of friendship, mutual esteem and trust, not only between gallerist and artist, but also between gallerist and public. In your opinion, could this lack be one of the reasons why today galleries in Italy (and elsewhere) struggle to attract a wider audience than just trusted collectors?

TC: I think the difficulty of attracting new audiences does not depend so much on a lack of relationship with them, but on how you approach them. Communication is crucial in this regard, as is the quality and inventiveness of one’s projects. During the first month of the exhibition Casa Iolas. Citofonare Vezzoli we had an average of sixty people a day, numbers that are hard to count in an Italian gallery. Attracting new audiences, even when working on historical moments, artists or people like Alexander Iolas, whom history has almost forgotten, takes a good dose of storytelling, an open and interdisciplinary approach to the arts and the courage to dare. All channeled into digital communication via social media and in print media.

FDV: Alessia, I would instead like to ask you a question that relates to gender equality in the art system. What difficulties (if any) do you encounter in your work as a female gallerist? Do you think that in the contemporary art system a woman (even a gallerist) has more difficulty establishing herself?

AC: This is not an issue I have ever pondered on, but I know that historians and curators are providing for the inclusion in international museum collections, works by women artists. Indeed, while it is true that among the artists of the past, few are women, on the gallery front there are figures like Peggy Guggenheim or Iris Clert who have made history. While it is news today that Cecilia Alemani is the first Italian woman to become director of a Biennale (because she is an Italian national), the real scoop is that a wife and mother managed to combine her career in this world of international travel with family and a solid marriage. After all, the example of my parents, together in life and work for as long as I can remember, is no less. Perhaps in a world of endless possibilities, the real challenge is to be able to have a successful career together with a united family that will perhaps help overcome that terrible demographic decline we are witnessing in Italy. After all, I am convinced that the real distinction is in individual abilities, between those who are good and those who are not, regardless of being a woman or a man.

FDV: Alessia, one last question.The two fundamental aspects of the art market are the players in the market itself (private and public) and the promotion of the institution, also by activating important collaborations as in your case (remember the Metropolitan Museum in New York, the Musée d’Art Moderne Ville de Paris and the Reina Sofía in Madrid). How has the management of these aspects changed with the advent of digital and social media? Do you think it is possible to create exhibitions digitally? What is the new challenge for art galleries to increase an audience that has difficulty taking part in gallery life in Italy (but not only)?

AC: We are witnessing a global change that is accelerating a process that was already underway. I confirm that as Galleria d’Arte Maggiore g.a.m. we have always pursued market enhancement of the artists we treat, along with cultural enhancement through participation in public works and collaborations with museums. This is a process that we continue to maintain in force, even during this pandemic, and which led us to inaugurate last December (2020) an exhibition on Giorgio Morandi in a large private museum in China, with great success in terms of visitors. Because the reality is that today’s technology cannot replace direct enjoyment of the artwork and sublimate the urge to leave home. It is true, however, that it allows us to create a series of exhibitions such as “Ico Parisi. The House” currently online in the viewing room on our website(https://www.maggioregam.com/viewing-room/), in which works from the famous architect’s collection are brought back to life in the rooms where they were originally located. An operation that would be impossible to accomplish live (catalog for sale in our online store: Ico Parisi. The House, edited by Flaminio Gualdoni, Electa, 1999).

FDV: Tommaso, one last question for you as well. The writer has had occasion to observe that your gallery also offers well-done digital tours of current exhibitions. Is this a need that has arisen as a result of the pandemic or is it really meant to be a prerogative of Tommaso Calabro to address digital? I also ask you, in closing, the same question I asked Alessia, which is what is the new challenge for art galleries to increase an audience that has difficulty taking part in gallery life in Italy

In February 2019, I started collaborating with the Artland platform to create virtual tours to my exhibitions. I liked the idea of offering the opportunity to view the gallery space even to those who could not or would not make it to the gallery in person. During this second lockdown, the virtual tour revealed its usefulness, allowing the current exhibition, Casa Iolas. Citofonare Vezzoli, to reach our audience. I think the biggest challenge right now is to continue to offer culturally and, at the same time, commercially viable projects in a time of extreme economic and social uncertainty.

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