The exhibitions to see in July 2025 in Italy From the great masters of photography to emerging artists, a cultural journey that stops throughout the Peninsula
July is the month of light travel, spontaneous weekend escapes, and playlists in your ears as the train speeds toward a new destination. But it’s also the perfect time to pause and soak up some inspiration. If you’re looking for exhibitions to see in Italy in July, get ready: this summer’s cultural calendar is more exciting than ever. From major retrospectives to bold, cutting-edge projects by emerging artists, from immersive installations and interactive journeys to creative blends of art, fashion, photography, and new technologies, Italy’s cities, both big and small, are transforming into open-air creative labs. Milan, Rome, Turin, Florence, but also more unexpected gems like Trento, Noto, or Vieste… every corner of Italy holds a surprise. And the best part? You don’t need to be an expert or a longtime art lover. The best art exhibitions in Italy in July are made for everyone: for those who crave big names, for those in search of visual inspiration, or for anyone simply looking for something beautiful to enjoy between a granita and a sunset. So take note, mark the dates, and start planning your itinerary. Here’s our curated selection to help you discover what’s truly worth seeing. Because in summer, art shines even brighter.
The exhibitions to see in July 2025 in Italy
Jenna Gribbon - Milan
In the evocative setting of Casa Corbellini‑Wassermann, Jenna Gribbon’s Rainbows in Shadows installation blurs the line between painting and cinematic intimacy. The American artist's canvases become theatrical backdrops, saturated with color and emotional vibration, where daily life turns reflective and tactile. Thick brushstrokes, stage lighting, and photo-like framing build a familiar domestic scene starring her wife, musician Mackenzie Scott (known as Torres), and their son Silas. Nothing is incidental, from household details to grazing light and reflective skin. Her fluorescent pink nipples, true disturbing elements, jolt the viewer, inviting questions about the pleasure of looking and the voyeuristic act of observation. Gribbon balances seduction and vulnerability, rendering queer affection in its most physical, affirmative form. This is both confession and manifesto.
Title: Rainbows in Shadows
Where: MASSIMODECARLO, Milan
When: Until September 6, 2025
John Fekner - Reggio Emilia
At SpazioC21, a retrospective of John Fekner opens July 3, showcasing the pioneer of stencil art and guerrilla graffiti from New York. More than just an exhibition, Broken Promises is an urban archaeology journey through 50 years of visual protest. From his Warning Signs on bridges and walls to multimedia performances with COLAB, Fekner’s art emerges from urban decay to become a visual prophecy. His sharp phrases (Decay, Toxic Junkie) testify to a broken America but also plant seeds of rebellion. Fekner’s militant poetry, told through stencils, videos, photos, and sound, predates Banksy and remains razor-sharp in its relevance, confronting the viewer with the political power of public art. If you want to learn more about the American artist, the appointment is at SpazioC21 in Reggio Emilia until September 10, 2025.
Title: John Fekner. Broken promises
Where: SpazioC21, Reggio Emilia
When: July 3 – September 10, 2025
Katharine Hepburn - Bologna
At the Grand Hotel Majestic, All About Me reframes Katharine Hepburn as a rebel style icon, via rare portraits, backstage shots, and private archive finds. Co-produced with the Cineteca di Bologna and the Cinema Ritrovato Festival, the show starts from the documentary of the same name to paint a portrait of emancipation, intellect, and originality. From The African Queen to Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?, Hepburn defied convention with her trademark trousers and unbending spirit. These images show charisma and solitude, stage energy and private quiet, leaving behind a cultural legacy that outlasts even her four Oscars. A must-see for film lovers and admirers of women who broke every rule, and never asked permission.
Title: Katharine Hepburn: All About Me
Where: Grand Hotel Majestic, Bologna
When: Until September 7, 2025
Jeff Koons - Vieste
On holiday in Puglia? Add a visit to the Jeff Koons solo show at Torre San Felice in Vieste. Featuring 32 neopop works in paper, ceramic, and sculpture, the exhibition celebrates the aesthetics of desire and infinite reproduction. Central are the four Balloon Dog sculptures, reflective pop monuments turning childhood toys into icons of luxury nostalgia. Also on view are Koons’ Antiquity series, a sly take on classical myths, and his Gazing Ball works, where reflective spheres interact with Old Masters like Perugino and Klimt. A brilliant blend of kitsch charm and critical reflection, this show dissects Koons’ signature language of spectacle, consumption, and memory.
Title: Jeff Koons a Vieste
Quando: fino al 4 settembre 2025
Dove: Torre San Felice, Vieste
Thérèse Mulgrew - Milan
At Galleria Poggiali, Slow Burn marks Thérèse Mulgrew’s Italian debut, inviting viewers to pause and observe. Through cinematic still lifes and portraits, half-smoked cigarettes, abandoned dishes, grazing hands, Mulgrew builds the narrative tension of stillness. Rather than describe, her painting evokes: moments hang suspended, compelling the viewer to complete them. In works like Lipstick Touch-Up and Awaiting Lunch Guests, bodies fragment, gestures speak. Every object, a glass, a glove, an eyeshadow case, carries atmosphere and memory. It’s an aesthetic of almost, revealing the yearning for presence in a world that spins too fast.
Title: Slow Burn
Where: Galleria Poggiali, Milan
When: Until September 1, 2025
Sara Messinger - Florence
“These images not only show their journey of self-discovery, but also reflect my own. I became part of their world and, without realizing it, they changed my life.” So says Sara Messinger, introducing her debut Italian solo show at Crumb Gallery, Florence. Shadow of a Teenage Daydream gathers 14 analog photos from a larger body of work capturing New York’s teen outsiders. It all began one summer afternoon in Tompkins Square Park, and what followed was four years of candid, tender storytelling, complicity, skin-shedding, and unspeakable truths. Messinger moves invisibly through their world, documenting without judgment. Their shifting bodies, fluid loves, and vulnerable pride are captured with gut-deep emotion. “I’m not after the perfect shot,” she says. “I just want my gut to speak.” The result is a raw and intimate coming-of-age chronicle, where adolescence becomes fertile ground for becoming someone new.
Title: Shadow of a Teenage Daydream
Where: Crumb Gallery, Florence
When: Until September 20, 2025
Koch and Cagnaccio - Rovereto
If you're drawn to the ambiguous charm of reality, Mart Museum in Rovereto is hosting a must-see exhibition: Magical Realisms, open until August 31, 2025. It’s a never-before-seen encounter between Pyke Koch, the sophisticated Dutch master with a dark heart, and Cagnaccio di San Pietro, an Italian painter who turned everyday rawness into emotional epic. Two opposite visions, the same Northern roots, and a shared pull towards hyper-realism that flirts with the surreal. The exhibition includes 31 never-before-seen works in Italy by Koch, enigmatic and razor-sharp, paired with 70 pieces by Cagnaccio, offering a different take on reality: more human, more empathetic, more visceral. While Koch appears distant and sometimes cynical, Cagnaccio embraces suffering through a politically engaged gaze. The ideological gap becomes part of the story: Koch was linked to reactionary circles, while Cagnaccio was a staunch antifascist. One observes from above; the other steps inside the lives he paints. This visual dialogue reveals how unstable and unsettling truth can be. Between obsessively ironed clothes and bodies exposed in their anatomical honesty, everything feels too real to be just real. And that’s where the poetics of Magical Realism bloom, suspended between control and disquiet, dream and surgical precision.
Title: Realismi Magici
When: Until August 31, 2025
Where: Mart Museum, Rovereto
Warhol, Basquiat, Haring, Scharf - Noto
Until November 2, 2025, Noto becomes the epicenter of American Pop Art with Icon, an unmissable show at the Convitto delle Arti Noto Museum. Featuring 120 iconic works, this exhibit bursts with color, protest, and pop worship, from Warhol’s Marilyns to Basquiat’s tribal signs, Haring’s dancing figures, and Scharf’s psychedelic cartoons. But that’s not all. You'll also find vinyl covers, immersive rooms (including a tribute to Studio 54), and a narrative woven through art, music, politics, and endless nights. The focus isn’t just on myth, but on the personal and political ties between these legends. These artists turned the chaos of the metropolis into a universal language, and that urban vibration still pulses loudly today.
Title: Icon. Warhol, Basquiat, Haring, Scharf. L’eredità di un’arte rivoluzionaria.
When: Until November 2, 2025
Where: Convitto delle Arti Noto Museum, Noto
Alfred Eisenstaedt - Turin
Everyone knows that kiss, the sailor and the nurse in Times Square. But behind it was a man with a sharper eye than you might imagine: Alfred Eisenstaedt. Until September 21, 2025, the Italian Center for Photography (CAMERA) in Turin honors this legend with a retrospective of 170 photographs. From Marilyn Monroe to Einstein, from pre-war Germany to postwar America, Eisenstaedt chronicled a century with ironic elegance and visual precision. With over 2500 photo-reportages and 90 Life Magazine covers, his lens captured both beauty and horror with the same human touch. This is a rare chance to explore the visual language of the 20th century, crafted by one of its most discreet yet powerful narrators.
Title: Alfred Eisenstaedt
When: Until September 21, 2025
Where: CAMERA – Italian Center for Photography, Turin
Albert Watson - Rome
“That's the magic of Rome: it reveals itself, layer by layer, if you have the patience to look at it” says Albert Watson. He understood well that Rome is a diva that allows itself to be photographed only if you learn to respect its silences, read the cracks in the walls, and allow yourself to be traversed by its contrasts. With his exhibition Roma Codex, open until August 3, 2025 at Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Watson delves into the soul of the Eternal City. Over 200 photos, both color and black-and-white, map out a living, breathing urban body, directors like Sorrentino and actors Riccardo Scamarcio or Isabella Ferrari coexist with anonymous faces, street scenes, and quiet corners. Watson treats Rome not as a symbol, but as raw material: shifting, contradictory, and magnetic. His visual storytelling becomes an atlas of emotion, detail, and insight. Rome, here, is not portrayed, it is decoded.
Title: Roma Codex
When: Until August 3, 2025
Where: Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome