ART PATRON: Zegna is expanding its support of the art world.
After inking a global multiyear partnership with Art Basel in 2025, the luxury brand revealed that it is sponsoring the Italian Pavilion at the 2026 Venice Art Exhibition “La Biennale,” scheduled between May 9 and Nov. 22.
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“Sponsoring the Italian Pavilion at the Biennale Arte 2026 means continuing a commitment that is part of our history. For over a century, we have invested in the territory, craftsmanship and Italian culture, fostering a constant dialogue between enterprise and art,” said Gildo Zegna, executive chairman of the publicly listed Ermenegildo Zegna Group.
Curated by Cecilia Canziani, the Italian Pavilion at the 61st edition of the international art exhibition will unveil a project by artist Chiara Camoni titled “Con te con tutto,” or “With you with everything,” which “invites us to rethink our way of being in the world through sharing, dialogue between forms of life, and renewed attention to matter, time and transformation,” Zegna said.
Both art personalities have a long-standing rapport with Zegna, having collaborated over the past 10 years on the ZegnArt project and with Fondazione Zegna. Camoni’s creative practice has sometimes drawn from yarns by the Lanificio Zegna, as well as the botanical and mineral elements of Oasi Zegna, the area spanning more than 62 miles designed and created by founder Ermenegildo Zegna in the mountains of Northern Italy, Piedmont, around Trivero where the company is based.
“We have shared a dialogue with Chiara Camoni for more than 10 years. Her work reflects this attention to matter, landscape and an evolving tradition. Seeing her today, together with Cecilia Canziani, leading the Italy Pavilion represents an important recognition of their journey and the coherence of their research, one we are proud to support,” Zegna said.
Art curator Cecilia Canziani and artist Chiara Camoni
In tandem with the Art Biennale in Venice, Oasi Zegna will host a solo exhibition by Camoni, curated by Ilaria Bonacossa, further highlighting the dialogues between the luxury brand and the artist and the latter and the natural landscape. The exhibit will run May 22 to Nov. 22.
Located a 90-minute drive from Milan, Oasi Zegna offers stunning views of the Alps, from the Monviso pyramid-shaped mountain to the Monte Rosa massif and is crossed by the road 232 created by the company’s founder in the 1930s, when he also planted half-a-million pine trees to enrich local flora of hydrangeas and rhododendrons.
The multiyear partnership with Art Basel builds on Zegna’s existing ties with the art world. Its founder commissioned local artists, including Ettore Olivero Pistoletto and Otto Maraini, to enrich the town of Trivero and the original wool mill at the heart of the company.
The company has continued to commission site-specific artworks by artists such as Daniel Buren, Dan Graham and Roman Signer, as well as Michelangelo Pistoletto for “Woolen — the Reinstated Apple,” which stands at the brand’s Milan headquarters. It has also invited artists such as Graham Sutherland, Not Vital and Kiki Smith to create bespoke wool trophies, while artworks by William Kentridge, Mimmo Jodice and Ettore Spalletti decorate some of the Zegna stores globally.
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