Matisse Mesnil
Sutura
The gallery Romero Paprocki inaugurates a new space in Milan on March 12, 2026. Located on Via Lazzaro Palazzi, a street historically associated with artistic experimentation and contemporary galleries, the venue spans 320 sqm at street level, featuring five storefront windows, and is conceived to host large-scale exhibition projects.
The inaugural exhibition, titled Sutura and dedicated to Franco-Italian artist Matisse Mesnil, will be on view from March 12 to May 9, 2026, and is accompanied by a critical text by Milovan Farronato and Chiara Spagnol. It marks the artist’s first exhibition in Milan, anticipating the future curatorial direction of the gallery’s programme.
Focusing on what introduces a distance from the artwork, Matisse Mesnil has initiated a phase of technical and methodological experimentation centred on his material of choice, metal. Suspended between craftsmanship and industry, this material demands a reconsideration of gesture and tools; time becomes subordinate to its physical processes, and the technical apparatus fully enters the construction of form. Through practices such as welding and grinding, the artist reworks the means of representation within its most traditional genres, such as landscape and still life. This research phase is accompanied by an increasingly essential vocabulary, modules of lines and minimal variations, which approaches the language of minimalism without fully adhering to it. Alongside the noise of the industrial world, an ethic and aesthetic of silent contemplation emerges. A latent tension runs through the most recent works, which nonetheless evoke an almost sacred dimension, also evident in the scenographic and architectural attention that structures his practice: the works, from their scale to their modes of display, are conceived to be experienced in space and in direct relation to the viewer’s body.
More recently, Mesnil has further expanded his research towards a larger scale, developing land art interventions created in situ during artistic residencies, where the work engages directly with the landscape and the material conditions of the site.
Matisse Mesnil
Satura
Romero Paprocki
March 12 — May 9, 2026
Text by
Milovan Farronato
Chiara Spagnol
Credits: Installation view Romero Paprocki
Photo by Allison Borgo
