The exhibition “360°: Why We Paint?” is currently on view at By Art Matters in Hangzhou. Open to the public until 12 October 2025, the project has been co-organised by the Centro per l’Arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci (Prato) and By Art Matters (Hangzhou), with the support of the Italian Cultural Institute of Shanghai and the Consulate General of Italy in Shanghai.
Divided into three sections housed within the OōEli architectural complex designed by Renzo Piano, the exhibition was inaugurated by Francesco Bonami, Director of By Art Matters, and Sun Man, curator at the museum and co-curator of the show, alongside Stefano Collicelli Cagol, Director of the Centro per l’Arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci.
For By Art Matters, this marks the first major international group exhibition devoted entirely to painting, as well as the institution’s first collaboration with a foreign museum. Establishing a spatial and temporal connection between Hangzhou and Prato — two cities with distinct geographical and cultural identities — the project brings together over one hundred works created in the first quarter of the 21st century by 39 international artists. Among them are Italian artists such as Roberto Cattivelli, whose four exhibited works each feature rabbits and hares as symbolic metaphors, reflecting his ongoing exploration of the intersection between animality and humanity; Cecilia De Nisco, whose pieces are characterised by deep, shadowy tones and intimate scenes punctuated by sparse illumination; and Chiara Enzo, who presents works conceived and created during her recent artist residency in Hangzhou.
