From October 29, 2025, to January 25, 2026, Palazzo Strozzi presents The Message, a new site-specific installation by the American artist KAWS, created in dialogue with the Renaissance architecture of the palace and the ongoing exhibition dedicated to Beato Angelico. The project is organized by Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi and Fondazione Hillary Merkus Recordati.
Curated by Arturo Galansino, director general of Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi, The Message establishes a striking visual and symbolic exchange between KAWS’s contemporary language and the spiritual world of Beato Angelico. Inspired by the theme of the Annunciation, the installation reinterprets one of the most iconic subjects in Western art through the lens of modern communication and digital connectivity.
A key element in this work is the mobile phone, depicted as a central symbol of today’s hyperconnected society, an object that, in KAWS’s vision, acquires an almost sacred meaning. Through his instantly recognizable characters marked by their “X” eyes, KAWS explores universal emotions such as melancholy, vulnerability, and empathy, inviting visitors to reflect on how technology shapes human relationships and perception.
Freely accessible in the palace’s courtyard, the installation continues Palazzo Strozzi’s Future Art program, which commissions major contemporary interventions that connect the past with the present.
Born in 1974 in Jersey City, KAWS lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. His works have been exhibited in leading institutions worldwide, including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, the Art Gallery of Ontario, and London’s Serpentine Gallery.
The Message will be on view in the courtyard of Palazzo Strozzi from October 29, 2025, to January 25, 2026.
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