The most art exhibitions in Milan to see during Fashion Week

You would like to see Linda Evangelista during the Milan Fashion Week? Go to Other Size Gallery where Stefano Babicone of the photographers who marked the glorious fashion season of the Eighties, helping to design the image of Moschino, gives us around twenty large format shots. There are some very well-known ones, like this one from Linda Evangelista, the unforgettable top model who recently revealed her serious illnesses.

Stefano Babic. Light and shadowcurated by Claudio Composti (until 17 November) takes us on the catwalks of the Eighties and Nineties with these black and white portraits that seem sculpted with light. A super glamorous exhibition, unmissable this week.

If you are out and about in the city between one catwalk and another or if you feel like a #beautybreak in this frenetic beginning of September, try stopping in via Nerino, a few steps from via Torino: until 7 October the rooms of the Deodato Art Gallery are occupied by the bright colors and intense black and white of Alex Katz which here presents an exhibition entirely dedicated to the feminine beauty of a single woman: the wife Ada, at his side for 65 years. An elegant and intelligent figure, she has been the artist’s muse since their first date (a Billie Holiday concert in ’57 was a prisoner!).

Italian-American biologist, Ada Del Moro is the protagonist of over a thousand of the works (you see one above) that Katz created during his career. They are only apparently immobile images, because it is love that animates them: «For me it was very strange to be looked at so closely by the man I had just fallen in love with – Ada said -; the way she studied me, my face, my ears, everything. It was very strange and at the same time an overwhelming feeling».

It is not the only exhibition that focuses on a single woman: let’s move to Piazza della Scala and enter at Galleries of Italy where, until November 19th, Max Vadukul presents Through her eyes – Timeless Strengtha journey into the eternal feminine whose only subject is the ethereal top model Ludmilla Voronkina Bozzetti. The artistic project was born in 2021, when on the occasion of the shooting for the Zero Collection by Roberto Cavalli, Vadukul met Ludmilla, one of the models in the cast. He was struck by it: «She was different, really different. She had a story and a past; she was a real force and I started photographing her over and over again. I wanted to create an art project with her,” the photographer said.

Shots like Chairwhich you see above, demonstrate the power of this one woman show: Vadukul portrays his muse only in black and white shots, playing with chiaroscuro and painting on Ludmilla’s face and body the past and her particular story as a woman born in Sochi, Russia, who at just 15 years old gets her first important covers and an international passport to travel the world, becoming an inspiration for stylists and designers in the nineties.

Around Milan during Fashion Week, beauty is everywhere. Even the one celebrated by the great English photographer Jimmy Nelson, which composes a true hymn to diversity: its exhibition, Humanitycurated by Nicolas Ballario and Federica Crivellaro, is set up in Royal Palace of Milan (from 20 September to 21 January) and presents 65 photos of large (or giant) dimensions belonging to the best-known cycles of the production of Nelson, a photojournalist who has long studied the indigenous cultures of the most remote corners of the earth.

With his photographs, Jimmy Nelson celebrates diversity encountered in her travels in contact with the myriad communities of West Papua, Tibet, Africa, Siberia, Bhutan: «From an artistic point of view – said Nelson – I remain fascinated by the aesthetics of the indigenous populations. Their vibrant garments, sophisticated craftsmanship and breathtaking landscapes offer me a rich visual tapestry to capture beauty through my lens.”

More beauty at Palazzo Reale: here, from 21 September, the duo of artists and photographers Luigi & Iango punctuates the Prince’s Apartment with his work: celebrities, actors, pop stars (below Mahmood and Blancoportraits for the cover of our newspaper after the Sanremo victory in 2022) are captured by the grace of a sophisticated lens, capable of underlining the lesser-known aspect of the portrayed subject.

Unveiled presents around a hundred photos, videos, unpublished materials from the backstage and is the first major exhibition of the duo in Italy (accompanied by a substantial catalog published by Phaidon): on display there will also be unpublished shots dedicated to Madonnaan artist with whom Luigi&Iango have long had a solid bond, and some photographs taken from The Icon Issue by Vanity Fair.

And, finally, Wes Anderson. We close this overview of beauty with the ironic and irreverent twist of the American director who returns to Prada Foundation, where in 2015 he conceived the legendary Bar Luce. From 23 September, coinciding with the Italian premiere of his film, the exhibition will open at Prada Wes Anderson – Asteroid City: Exhibition in the spaces of the North Gallery where we can move among original sets, props, models, costumes and even works of art featured in his latest film. We are talking about a film set in the mid-1950s in an imaginary American town lost in the desert, where young astronomers meet at a conference. With a perfect Wesandersonian combination between science fiction and musicals (and a cast that includes talents such as Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Tilda Swinton, Edward Norton, Adrien Brody) how can you not be hypnotized by this genius? (If you want to meet him, the director will be present in the Fondazione Prada cinema at the screening on Friday 22nd, at 8.30pm).