Man Ray Exhibition at Tommaso Calabro Gallery in Venice

Tommaso Calabro has mounted a museum-scale Man Ray exhibition at his gallery's Venetian venue, Palazzo Donà Brusa in Campo San Polo. The show presents over forty works spanning assemblages, paintings, gouaches, and photographs by the eclectic 20th-century artist. Man Ray (born Emmanuel Radnitzky, Philadelphia 1890 – Paris 1976) lived in Paris and interacted with key avant-garde figures including Marcel Duchamp, Gertrude Stein, Picasso, James Joyce, Jean Cocteau, Meret Oppenheim, Lee Miller, Max Ernst, and André Breton. His work reflects Dadaist and Surrealist influences but remains a personal interpretation of the Parisian milieu. Highlights include the iconic Venus restaurée (a plaster Venus de Milo bust bound with rope) and Objet indestructible (a metronome with an eye photograph). The central salon features Rayographs and portraits, while an adjacent room displays drawings and paintings. A standout is a table displaying 'oggetti d'affezione'—collages and assemblages of disparate utensils, including Cadeau (a spiked flatiron) and Pêchage, a diorama with a painted wooden box, cotton, and three fake peaches. The latter plays on the pun between pêche (peach), paysage (landscape), repêchage (retrieval), and péché (sin). The exhibition confirms the gallery's dual focus on modern and contemporary art.