Contemporary art: exhibitions not to be missed in OCTOBER 2025

October is one of the best months to visit exhibitions: the air becomes crisp, cities fill with cultural events, and museums open their doors to new exhibitions. Once again this year, the Italian autumn offers a rich panorama, with established artists and young voices recounting the present through different languages, from painting to photography, from installation to performance.

Here are 5 contemporary art exhibitions not to be missed in October in Italy: not a ranking, but an invitation to browse, be surprised and, why not, fall in love with new ways of looking at the world.

Contemporary art: exhibitions to see in OCTOBER 2025

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#OTTOBRE2025

Here are 5 exhibitions opening in October in 5 contemporary art galleries in Italy.

This is not a ranking of the best exhibitions!

These are 5 current proposals that offer different food for thought, together with an overview of contemporary research.

– artistic practice as a philosophical and spiritual exercise

– a journey through Italian salons of the 1960s and 1970s, among art and design objects

– waiting as a space for poetic and artistic reflection

– a visionary imagination between photography, artificial intelligence, and ritual memory

– flights of angels suspended on paper

Keep in art,
Alice

5 EXHIBITIONS IN AUGUST 2025: CONTEMPORARY ART IN MILAN, VENICE, TODI, AND CREMONA

Ritratto di Bai Yiyi in studio. Courtesy l’artista e Galleria Poggiali Milano

Bai Yiyi
Healing

curated by Elisa Carollo

Rooted in the principles of Daoism and intertwined with contemporary physics, Yiyi’s painting proposes an alternative cosmology, where abstraction and figuration meet to restore a unified vision of reality. Healing thus takes the form of a path of attunement and awareness, capable of opening up a space in which inner experiences and cosmic relationships intertwine in a network of vital interdependent relationships. (from the press release)

opening Wednesday, October 1, 2025

until December 13, 2025

Galleria Poggiali, Milan

Link: https://www.galleriapoggiali.com/it/mostra-milano/bai-yiyi-healing

Claire Lindner: Green tuft, 2025,glazed stoneware, 60 x 24 x 28 cm

Attraverso le stanze

The exhibition invites visitors to walk through three reconstructions of domestic environments, each imagined around the vision of a different type of collector. The works interact with period furnishings and design objects, helping to evoke three distinct atmospheres and reflect the cultural stratification of the time. (from the press release)

opening Thursday, October 2, 2025, 12:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

until December 13, 2025

Tommaso Calabro, Milan

Link: https://www.tommasocalabro.com/mostre/attraverso-le-stanze

Préludes o della forma in-attesa
Greta Ferretti, Olga Lepri, Sara Pacucci

In music, Preludes are short pieces played extemporaneously. In opera, they are often played behind closed curtains before the actual piece is performed. The term comes from the Latin praeludere (prae- ‘pre-’ and ludĕre ‘to practice, to play’) and, in a broader sense, means ‘to announce, to give a hint of what is to come’. ‘Playing’ (with words, sounds or colors) is therefore the moment that precedes and in some way gives rise to the work that will follow, as if in the prelude every possibility were still open, undefined, suspended and, in a certain sense, ‘in waiting’. (from the press release)

opening Saturday, October 4, 6:00 p.m.

until December 20, 2025

Marignana Arte, Venice

Link: https://www.marignanaarte.it/preludes-o-della-forma-in-attesa/

RERUM NOVARUM
Matteo Basilé

curated by Airona Altman

Conceived as a passage rather than an exhibition, Rerum Novarum invites the public on an immersive journey through light, flesh, and code. Each image appears as a living organism, suspended between matter and dream, between what is human and what transcends it. The title itself evokes an epochal turning point: if the nineteenth century was the time of the industrial revolution, today it is Artificial Intelligence that is redefining our imagination. (from the press release)

opening Saturday, October 4, 12:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.

until March 7, 2026

Galleria Giampaolo Abbondio, Todi

Link: https://www.giampaoloabbondio.com/

Omar Galliani
Nuovi Angeli – Nuove Carte

“If all the angels watching over the world held each other tight and, invoking one last flight into the last light, opened that window that allows no passage and together clasped all the stars in a fist of rays absorbed and confused in the last moment of all time, then even my blue, red, black, and colorless drawings would burn in an ancient fire. My angels fly low, holding tightly to their pastels, pencils, and sheets of timeless hands. They fly low over new faces tattooed with codes from East and West, greeting with closed eyes the angels who, from Correggio to Vogue, cross the streets of the world.” (text by Omar Galliani)

opening Saturday, October 18, 6:00 p.m.

until January 10, 2026

Mangano Galleria d’Arte, Cremona

Link: https://www.mangano.art/n/37-omar-galliani,-nuovi-angeli–nuove-carte.html

CONTEMPORARY ART OCTOBER 2025: SOME EXHIBITIONS ARE COMING TO A CLOSE!

Nicola Nannini. Non è ancora buio
until October 4, 2025, at CUBO Unipol, Bologna

DAMNATIO FIGURAE. Dalla negazione dell’immagine al ritratto
until October 5, 2025, at Fondazione Alberto Peruzzo – Spazio Sant’Agnese, Padua

Davide Bramante – JOCU FOCU
until October 17, 2025, at Studio La Città, Verona

Gianmaria Potenza – Elaborating New Codes
until October 17, 2025, at Palazzo Ferro Fini (Headquarters of the Regional Council of Veneto), Venice

Ljubodrag Andric. Spazi, soglie, luci
until October 18, 2025, at BUILDING, Milan

HOPE AROUND – New York graffiti

until October 25, 2025, at Foro Boario, Oristano

To discover all the unmissable exhibitions taking place in museums and exhibition halls throughout Italy, read the page dedicated to Exhibitions and Events, with a map to search for the event you want to see in your city.

ARTE CONTEMPORANEA OTTOBRE 2025: ALCUNE MOSTRE IN CORSO!

Tre Atti. Pichler, Zhuka, Marinelli
until November 2, 2025, at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Cavalese

Claire Lindner – FLAMING WINGS
until November 14, 2025, at MAAB Gallery, Milan

Elisa Alberti – Risonanze
until November 21, 2025, at 10 A.M. ART, Milan

João Vilhena – Predizione Perdizione
until November 22, 2025, at Galleria Alberta Pane, Venice

Ivana Bašić – Fantasy vanishes in flesh

until December 2025, at FRANCESCA MININI, Milan

All the exhibitions that opened last month and are still running can be found in the post Contemporary art: exhibitions not to be missed in SEPTEMBER 2025.

As always, enjoy the art!

Alice

Curated by Alice Traforti