Major Alighiero Boetti Retrospective Announced for Venice 2026 Alongside Lee Ufan Exhibition

A significant retrospective dedicated to Italian artist Alighiero Boetti will open at SMAC Venice in Piazza San Marco from May 7 to November 22, 2026. The exhibition, curated by Elena Geuna, is timed to coincide with the Venice Biennale and will run parallel to a separate show at the same venue featuring Korean artist Lee Ufan. The Boetti retrospective will present approximately one hundred works across eight rooms, tracing over 25 years of the artist's influential career. Born in Turin in 1940, Boetti emerged in the late 1960s within the Arte Povera movement, holding his first solo exhibition at Galleria Christian Stein in Turin in 1967. His early work utilized industrial materials like cement, iron, and wood arranged in serial structures, revealing an early interest in systems. In the 1970s, his practice evolved toward conceptual frameworks involving language, classifications, and codes, exemplified by series like the 'Biro' drawings. A pivotal moment came in 1972 when he began signing his work as 'Alighiero e Boetti', introducing a conceptual split in artistic identity reflected in works like 'Gemelli' (1968). Boetti developed a sustained collaborative practice with artisans in Kabul, Afghanistan, from 1971 until the 1979 Soviet invasion, producing iconic embroidered 'Mappe' (Maps) that depict shifting world political borders. His work frequently engaged with language through textual embroideries and coded systems. Boetti achieved international recognition in the 1980s with participation in major exhibitions including Documenta 7 (1982) and shows at the Centre Pompidou. The upcoming Venice exhibition will highlight his progression from Arte Povera to complex systemic works, underscoring his status as a key 20th-century figure.