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On the occasion of Milano Art Week and Milan Design Week 2025, the Galleria Alessandro Cesati, in collaboration with Volumnia, presents two exclusive projects—Matter Becomes Language and Salotto Bello in Milan. The former is an exhibition that explores the unexpected yet compelling dialogue between two 20th century masters: Italian sculptor Umberto Mastroianni and Italian architect and designer Gianfranco Frattini. Through a curated selection of furniture and sculptural art and design pieces, the show, on view from April 5 – 26, 2025, at Fuorisalone this year, uncovers their 'elective affinity'—a shared sensitivity to material, form and invention.
The ongoing design exhibition at Via San Giovanni sul Muro 3, 20121 Milan, reflects on the increasingly fertile relationship between the visual arts and furniture design—a fluid and dynamic exchange where boundaries dissolve to reveal new cultural connections. Though Mastroianni and Frattini worked in historically distinct spheres, a retrospective lens reveals common ground in their deep engagement with materials and in their inventive, multifaceted creative processes.
Born in 1910 in Frosinone, Italy, Mastroianni began his career in classical figurative art before embracing modernist impulses in the 1950s. Influenced by Futurism and European avant-garde figures such as Delaunay, Picasso, Kandinsky and Moholy-Nagy, Mastroianni developed a sculptural language that freely explored the expressive potential of metal. His work often integrated painting techniques, giving form to a kinetic, constructive complexity. Matter Becomes Language showcases his smaller-scale bronze works—frontally oriented pieces designed not as self-expressive statements but as enhancements to the domestic landscape.
Frattini, born in Padua in 1926, was a key figure in postwar Milanese design. Closely aligned with the birth of Made in Italy, he collaborated with pioneering companies and a discerning bourgeois clientele. His work bridges craftsmanship and industrial design, where materials—ranging from rich woods such as walnut and jacaranda to the chrome of the Space Age—play a central role. The furniture on view at the design event from April 7 - 13, 2025, highlights Frattini's sensuous and refined command of form and materiality.
While their paths never crossed in life, this exhibition marks their first conceptual encounter. Rather than relying on formal similarity, Matter Becomes Language uncovers a deeper kinship—a shared, tempered modernism grounded in material research and subtle experimentation.
Curated by Galleria Alessandro Cesati—renowned for its expertise in European sculpture and its longstanding focus on metals—and by Volumnia, led by Enrica De Micheli, whose work reimagines historic design within cultural spaces like the restored Renaissance church of Sant’Agostino, the exhibition offers a compelling synthesis of past and present.
For Salotto Bello, from April 5 - 10, 2025, Volumnia and LC Atelier create a refined Milanese living room in the intimate setting of the prestigious Palazzo Bonaparte 54, Milan, "where design comes to life through the works of Franco Albini, Mario Bellini, Luigi Caccia Dominioni, Paolo Buffa and Gabriella Crespi. The space, dressed with iconic pieces of Italian design, becomes a timeless place of elegance, where every detail reflects Milan's unique style. The apartment on Foro Bonaparte will come to life as an environment where tradition and innovation meet in perfect harmony," the art gallery relays in an official press release.
"Volumnia invites all design, art and culture enthusiasts to participate in these two unique exhibitions, which celebrate the talent and vision of the great Italian masters of the 20th century, offering a fresh and fascinating perspective on contemporary design," they continue.
Keep up with STIR’s coverage of Milan Design Week 2025, where we spotlight the most compelling exhibitions, presentations and installations from top studios, designers and brands. Dive into the highlights of Euroluce 2025 and explore all the design districts—Fuorisalone, 5Vie, Brera, Isola, Durini, and beyond—alongside the faceted programme of Salone del Mobile.Milano this year.
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