Luisa Lambri Salvatore Emblema 26 May - 1 Aug 2026 Naples
Private view: Friday 22 May 2026, 5–8pm
Thomas Dane Gallery
Via Francesco Crispi 69, Napoli
This May, Thomas Dane Gallery in Naples presents Luisa Lambri Salvatore Emblema, an exhibition bringing together a new body of work by Luisa Lambri (b. 1969, Como, Italy) with a selection of works by Salvatore Emblema (b. 1929, Terzigno, Italy, d. 2006, Terzigno, Italy). In parallel, the Museo Emblema in Terzigno and Galleria Fonti in Naples will present additional selections of works by both artists, extending the project to Emblema’s hometown and across multiple venues in the region.
Lambri’s engagement with the work of Salvatore Emblema began during her time in Los Angeles and later deepened through visits to Terzigno, where she encountered the artist’s archive and museum firsthand. These experiences provided the starting point for a sustained reflection on Emblema’s work and its relationship to Lambri’s own photographic practice.
The exhibition does not propose a direct dialogue between the work of Salvatore Emblema and Luisa Lambri. Instead, it brings together two practices that approach space and light from fundamentally different positions, without attempting to reconcile them.
Emblema’s work is rooted in material transformation. His paintings engage the physical substance of the world—earth, ash, and pigment—pushing painting toward a condition that is both elemental and expansive. Lambri’s photographs move in a different direction; rather than transforming matter, they register how space is inhabited, filtered, and perceived. Her images focus on surfaces, thresholds, and architectural supports, moments where architecture becomes an interior condition instead of a monumental form.
Rather than pairing individual works, Lambri’s contribution unfolds through several autonomous bodies of work, each presented independently across the participating venues. These series do not mirror Emblema’s abstraction, nor do they attempt to translate his materials into photographic terms. Their relationship remains indirect, operating through shared sensitivities to light, structure, and spatial experience.
In this sense, the exhibition is less about exchange than coexistence. The works occupy the same environments without requiring alignment. Meaning emerges not through dialogue, but through proximity, difference, and the quiet tension between material presence and perceptual restraint.
A text by Flaminia Gennari Santori will accompany the exhibition.
Salvatore Emblema
Luisa Lambri
Private view: Friday 22 May 2026, 5–8pm
Exhibition dates: 22 May–1 August 2026
Galleria Fonti
Via Chiaia 229, Napoli
Salvatore Emblema e Luisa Lambri
Private view: Saturday 23 May 2026, 11am–4pm
Exhibition dates: 23 May–18 September 2026
Museo Emblema
Via Salvatore Emblema 37, Terzigno (NA)
Luisa Lambri was born in 1969 in Como, Italy. She lives and works in Milan. Her work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at Base / Progetti per l’arte, Florence, Italy (2024); the Pavillon de l’Esprit Nouveau, Bologna, Italy (2024); the Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea, Milan, Italy (2021); the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York NY (2017); the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston MA (2012); the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles CA (2010); the Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore MD (2007); the Menil Collection, Houston TX (2004); Kunstverein Ludwigsburg, Ludwigsburg, Germany (2001); Palazzo Re Rebaudengo, Guarene d'Alba, Italy (2001); Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, England (2000); and the Institute of Visual Arts, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee WI (1999). Lambri has participated in the Rome Quadriennale (2020 and 2005); the Triennial for Contemporary Art, Cleveland (2018); the Chicago Architecture Biennial (2017); the Liverpool Biennial of Contemporary Art (2010); the Shanghai Biennale (2007); and the Venice Biennale (2010, 2004, 2003, and 1999).
Her work is included in numerous public collections including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York NY; the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles CA; the Art Institute of Chicago; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago IL; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles CA; the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh PA; the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston MA; Huis Marseille, Amsterdam, Netherlands; the Museo Nazionale delle Arti del XXI Secolo (MAXXI), Rome, Italy; the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, Rome, Italy; Museo Madre, Naples, Italy; the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan; the Jumex Collection, Mexico City, Mexico; the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, Italy; MASP Museu de Arte de São Paulo, Brazil; and Inhotim, Minas Gerais, Brazil.
Salvatore Emblema was born in 1929 in Terzigno, Italy, where he lived and worked until his death in 2006. His work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at White Cube, Hong Kong, China (2025); Haus Konstruktiv, Zürich, Switzerland (2023), Museo Madre, Naples, Italy (2016); Italian Cultural Institute, New York NY (2013); Museu Nacional de Belas Artes, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2005); Museo de la Secretaría de Hacienda y Crédito Público, Mexico City, Mexico (2005); Ludwig Museum, Koblenz, Germany (1990); Palazzo Reale, Naples, Italy (1985); and Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Netherlands (1982). In 1980, 1982 and 2009 Emblema’s work was featured in the Venice Biennale.
Selected public collections include: Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago IL; Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Netherlands; Ludwig Museum, Koblenz, Germany; Università Normale, Pisa, Italy; Museo del Novecento Castel Sant’Elmo, Naples, Italy; Museo Bargellini, Pieve di Cento, Italy; and Museo Madre, Naples, Italy.
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© Luisa Lambri.