Massimo De Carlo Opens New London Space in 18th-Century Mayfair Townhouse

Italian gallery Massimo De Carlo has relocated its London outpost from South Audley Street to a Grade II listed 18th-century townhouse at 16 Clifford Street in Mayfair, an area already home to other Italian art galleries. The gallery, which has been in London since 2009, aims to offer an "alternative exhibition model" for the contemporary art system. The building, dating from 1723, retains most of its original interior features, with the renovation designed by London-based PiM.Studio Architects. The new space opened on October 10, 2022, with a solo exhibition by French artist Jean-Marie Appriou (born 1986 in Brest), titled "Ophelia," running until November 12, 2022. This is Appriou's first solo show in the UK. The exhibition features works that evoke both archaic and contemporary forms, created through experimental approaches to metal, clay, and other materials. The show references Shakespeare's tragic character Ophelia, inspired by the Pre-Raphaelite masterpiece by Sir John Everett Millais. Appriou reinterprets the painting's hypnotic ambiguity as an allegory of "passage"—perhaps from life to death or from reality to a parallel dimension—inviting viewers to peer through the "doors of perception" prophesied by William Blake. The hand-modeled sculptures de-romanticize the feminine, transforming Ophelia into an amphibious creature, the "new mermaid" described by Shakespeare in Hamlet, reconnecting her to nature through motifs of water lilies, willows, and dragonflies.