Rome — This holiday season, Von Buren Contemporary invites visitors to step away from the noise of the modern world and into a realm of beauty, wonder and poetry. The gallery, located at Via Giulia 13 in the heart of Rome, is thrilled to present THE ROMANTICS, its rich and stimulating Christmas group exhibition dedicated to the Romantic era.
The exhibition opens with a vernissage on Sunday, November 15, 2026, from 17:00 to 21:30, and will remain on view until January 11, 2027.
With the participation of 22 artists spanning a remarkable diversity of genres — painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, collage and ceramics — The Romantics goes beyond the conventional group show format. The exhibition transforms the gallery itself into an installation artwork, enabling visitors to lose themselves — if only briefly — in a world of beauty, wonder and poetry.
Each of the selected artists shares some form of affinity with the ideas and beliefs that were central to Romanticism, the movement that flourished from the late 18th to the mid-19th century. Key to the movement was a reverence for the natural world; an emphasis on emotion and imagination over reason and intellect; the exaltation of the individual and personal expression; the exploration of inner psychological struggles; a fascination with the past; and a yearning for magic and transcendence.
The timing of the exhibition is no accident. In difficult times such as these, the gallery’s artists have found common ground in the Romantics’ celebration of beauty and the sublime, their distrust and misgiving in the face of advancing industrialisation and materialism, and their staunch belief that imagination and nature were healing powers — offering a refuge and a way to overcome one’s troubles and circumstances.
In keeping with Romantic ideas, The Romantics deliberately bypasses recent trends in contemporary art and puts the emphasis back on traditional skills. The exhibition allows technical mastery and emotional connection to re-emerge alongside ideas as criteria by which to evaluate a work of art — a bold statement in today’s concept-driven art world.
THE ROMANTICS
Vernissage: Sunday, November 15, 2026, 17:00–21:30
On view until January 11, 2027
Von Buren Contemporary
Via Giulia 13, 00186 Roma
Featured artists include Pietro Bandini, Agostino Rocco, Paolo Cancelliere and Sofia Podestà, among others.
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