Palazzo Strozzi unveils 2026 programme, from Rothko to “Broken”

Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi has announced its exhibition programme for 2026, confirming a year centred on major international projects and new contemporary commissions in Florence.

The programme follows the conclusion, in January 2026, of the large exhibition dedicated to Fra Angelico and opens in March with a major show on Mark Rothko. It will then continue in autumn with a wide-ranging exhibition on the theme of the fragment, organised in collaboration with the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

Alongside these exhibitions, Palazzo Strozzi will host new installations in its Renaissance courtyard and in the Project Space, reinforcing its focus on contemporary artistic production.

Rothko in Florence

The exhibition Rothko in Florence will run from 14 March to 23 August 2026 on the Piano Nobile of Palazzo Strozzi, with a press preview on 12 March.

Curated by Christopher Rothko and Elena Geuna, the show will present a selection of works spanning the American artist’s career, from early figurative paintings influenced by Expressionism and Surrealism to the large abstract canvases of the 1950s and 1960s. Several works have not previously been shown in Italy.

Loans will come from major international institutions, including Museum of Modern Art and Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Tate in London, the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the National Gallery of Art in Washington.

The project will also extend beyond Palazzo Strozzi to two Florentine sites connected to Rothko’s interest in Italian art: the Museo di San Marco and the Vestibule of the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, designed by Michelangelo. These satellite sections aim to create a dialogue between Rothko’s work and the city’s artistic heritage.

SUPERFLEX in the courtyard

From 14 April to 2 August 2026, the courtyard of Palazzo Strozzi will host There Are Other Fish In The Sea, a site-specific installation by the Danish collective SUPERFLEX.

The project imagines a future shaped by rising sea levels and proposes what the curators describe as a form of “interspecies architecture”, inviting visitors to reflect on the relationship between humans and the environment. The installation will be presented in Florence in the year marking the 60th anniversary of the 1966 flood, which had a lasting impact on the city’s cultural heritage.

The work is part of the Palazzo Strozzi Future Art programme and will later travel, in a renewed version, to Kunsthal Spritten in Aalborg, Denmark.

Jean-Marie Appriou in the Project Space

From 22 May to 23 August 2026, the Project Space will feature CANTO INFINITO, a solo exhibition by French artist Jean-Marie Appriou.

Curated by Arturo Galansino, Director General of the foundation, the exhibition will present new sculptures created for the space. Appriou is known for combining materials such as aluminium, bronze, glass and clay, shaping figures that move between human, animal and vegetal forms. The title refers to a continuous flow without beginning or end and alludes to Dante’s Divine Comedy as a cultural reference point.

“Broken”: archaeology and contemporary art

The autumn exhibition, Broken. The Power of the Fragment, will run from 25 September 2026 to 24 January 2027, again on the Piano Nobile of Palazzo Strozzi.

Curated by C. D. Dickerson and Andrew Sears of the National Gallery of Art, the exhibition will bring together more than 90 works from different periods and cultures, ranging from ancient Egypt, Mesoamerica, Etruria and Greece to early modern Peru and Cambodia. It will also include works by modern and contemporary artists such as Auguste Rodin, Alberto Giacometti, Louise Bourgeois, Huma Bhabha, Francesco Vezzoli and Danh Vo.

The exhibition will examine the historical and political circumstances behind broken and fragmented sculptures, including iconoclasm, war, vandalism and natural disasters, with references to events such as the Reformation, the Second World War and the 1966 Florence flood. After its presentation in Florence, the show will travel to Washington in spring 2027.

New identity and website

Alongside the exhibition programme, Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi has introduced a renewed visual identity and launched a redesigned website, palazzostrozzi.org.

According to the foundation, the update aims to improve clarity, coherence and accessibility, adopting current digital standards and presenting its exhibitions, educational activities and public programmes in a more structured way.

Public supporters of the foundation include the Municipality of Florence, the Tuscany Region, the Metropolitan City of Florence and the Florence Chamber of Commerce. Private support comes from Fondazione CR Firenze, Fondazione Hillary Merkus Recordati and the Palazzo Strozzi Partners Committee, with Intesa Sanpaolo as main partner.

(Cover photo: Superflex)

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