"Frangi develops a poetic visual language in which memory, the experience of nature, and artistic transformation merge into atmospherically powerful compositions"- Daniele Zara
DU is Giovanni Frangi’s new exhibition project for the Raphael Gallery, which will open on September 4, 2026, and continue until October 10.
The Italian artist Giovanni Frangi, born on May 12, 1959, in Milan—where he still lives and works today—currently teaches at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera in Milan. With DU 2025–2026, he renews the collaboration with the Galerie Raphael in Frankfurt for his fifth solo exhibition. The long-standing collaboration between Giovanni Frangi and Raphael Petrov began after they met at Art Basel 2007, where Frangi was represented by Galleria dello Scudo in Verona. Their first joint exhibition, Sassisassi, followed as early as 2008. The exhibition brought together works created using a wide variety of techniques and was displayed on four large iron tables, on which real stones were presented alongside the artworks—a distinctive exhibition concept that impressively created a dialogue between art and nature.
This was followed in 2009 by Pasadena, a series of 30 carborundum etchings; in 2014 by Paradisi Artificiali. Diario di Viaggio; and in 2019 by Strange Days. Each of these exhibitions marked another step forward in the ongoing artistic dialogue between Giovanni Frangi and the Gallery Raphael.
With DU 2025–2026, Giovanni Frangi now presents a comprehensive body of recent works, which is being shown to the public for the first time.The series Journey comprises a sequence of aquatint etchings on zinc, in which Frangi revisits central motifs of his visual world: forests, water lilies, seascapes, leaves, and alpine huts such as those on Mount San Bernardino. Although all the prints were created using the aquatint technique, each one is subsequently individually retouched by hand with vibrant or matte color accents. This results in unique, one-of-a-kind pieces whose color palette and atmosphere transform each print into a work of art of its own kind.
The second group of works, "Cantando sotto la pioggia", brings together works on paper and paintings on canvas. Inspired by lush, exotic vegetation, these works were created using a unique technique that can be classified as part of the broad family of monotypes. In the early 2000s, Frangi spent an extended period working at the renowned Aurora Press printmaking studio in San Francisco, where he came to know and appreciate this technique, which is widely used in the American art world.
The starting point for the series is the Heliconia Paradise plant. As is so often the case in Frangi’s work, these pieces are also based on photographs taken by the artist himself during a stay on the Canary Island of Fuerteventura, where he lived and worked for a prolonged period. From these personal observations, Frangi develops a poetic visual language in which memory, the experience of nature, and artistic transformation merge into atmospherically powerful compositions.
The exhibition title DU is intended as a tribute to the legendary Swiss cultural magazine Du, which gained international recognition under the direction of Manuel Gasser and is still highly regarded today, particularly for its exceptional graphic design.
An artist’s book in the form of an exhibition catalog will also be published to accompany the exhibition. It deliberately builds on Sassisassi, the first catalog published in 2008, and adopts its format and design language. Like its predecessor, this publication traces Giovanni Frangi’s creative universe through a seemingly free sequence of images and offers a personal insight into the thoughts, inspirations, and passions that underlie his multifaceted body of work.
