At Gagosian Rome, Summer Highlights unfolds as a refined and, at times, unsettling reflection on how memory, dream, and physical reality intersect through material transformation. The collective exhibition brings together nine artists from diverse backgrounds, engaging in a quiet yet powerful dialogue through form, symbol, and emotional tension. Robert Gober’s eerily lifelike child’s leg, emerging inexplicably from a wall, hovers between the surreal and the real, while Rachel Whiteread’s ghostly plaster casts of cardboard boxes become fragile containers of memory and grief. Christo’s early wrapped chandelier, encased in polyethylene and rope, strips the object of visibility to reveal its silent presence. Roe Ethridge’s hybrid photograph merges still life with commercial aesthetics, exploring the ambiguous codes of American visual culture. Giuseppe Penone evokes Le Corbusier’s architectural chromatics in delicate hand-imprints, while Adam McEwen transforms everyday ballpoint pens into abstract sculptural forms, referencing mechanical drawing and pop iconography. In Douglas Gordon’s golden hand and Piero Golia’s entombed chandelier, material contrast becomes a metaphor for identity, tradition, and disruption. From concrete to flesh, from marble to cardboard, each work in Summer Highlights becomes a threshold between what is seen and what is remembered. This is not simply a summer group show, but a tactile atlas of contemporary sensibilities - where every surface resonates with hidden narratives and emotional weight.

Proelium