After our fill of Renaissance culture we returned to Palazzo Strozzi for an exhibition entitled Reaching for the Stars, which showcases Italian contemporary artists along with international ones.
The works of Italian artists were in this room - all of them were interesting, most commenting on the role of women, climate change, questions about identity.
The work below by Maurizio Cattelan, Lullaby (1994) really struck me. It is a canvas sack full of rubble collected from the attack on the Padiglione d'Arte Contemporanea (the contemporary art pavilion) in Milan in 1993.
A Cosa Nostra attack using a car bomb killed 5 people and damaged the building. The building and the deaths of the people are wrapped up in this bag used for demolition materials.
There were many international artists as well, Barbara Kruger, Cindy Sherman, Shirin Neshat, Damien Hirst and others
There was a good representation of female artists!
I was intrigued by the work of Lynette Lynette Yiadom-Boakye'. Her works are invented characters: both men and women, they are always Black and painted with quick brushstrokes in light, bright colors. She addresses the near absence of black subjects in western art. I found these paintings very powerful and evocative.
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