There are exhibitions that you simply visit, and others that you experience slowly, letting materials, gestures, and silences guide the journey. Mani-Fattura: the ceramics of Lucio Fontana, on view from 11 October 2025 to 2 March 2026, clearly belongs to the latter category.
Hosted at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, overlooking the Grand Canal, the exhibition offers an unexpected and deeply human perspective on one of the most iconic artists of the twentieth century. Here, Fontana moves away from the slashed surfaces for which he is best known and returns to matter, to the hands, to direct contact with clay. A warmer, more intimate language that invites visitors to observe and to feel, not only to understand.
A Fontana to be discovered slowly
Curated by Sharon Hecker, the exhibition is the first museum solo show entirely devoted to Lucio Fontana’s ceramics. Around seventy works, some never exhibited before, trace a research journey spanning decades and different places, from Argentina to Italy, following the most intense passages of his life and of twentieth-century history.
Fontana’s ceramics do not seek perfection. They are irregular, vibrant, often marked by bold colours or sudden gestures. In these works, one can sense the time of making, the energy of the gesture, the constant dialogue between control and freedom.
Matter as a shared narrative
Walking through the galleries, one has the feeling that each work retains the memory of the hands that shaped it. Clay becomes a field of physical and emotional experimentation, where the artistic gesture remains visible, almost tangible.
A central aspect of the exhibition is Fontana’s relationship with the world of ceramic production, particularly with Tullio d’Albisola and the historic Mazzotti manufactory in Albisola.
The Peggy Guggenheim: art and light on the Grand Canal
The Peggy Guggenheim Collection is not merely the setting for the exhibition, but an integral part of the experience. Housed in Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, in the Dorsoduro district, it offers luminous spaces, views over the water, and the renowned sculpture garden.
A natural stop during a Venetian stay
Visiting Mani-Fattura means allowing yourself a deeper look into both art and the city. If you are planning your time in Venice between autumn and winter, this exhibition can naturally become part of your stay — to be enjoyed at a gentle pace and by booking directly here.
