STRANGE FAMILIAR

15 10 2026

Concept by Matilde Della Pina Senior Art Curator

What happens when what we know begins to feel unfamiliar?

We live surrounded by images, objects, places, and everyday gestures that we recognize and interpret almost automatically. Yet a shift in perspective, a distortion, or an unexpected juxtaposition can transform the familiar into something different, revealing a new and surprising dimension.

Strange Familiar explores the subtle boundary between the recognizable and the unknown, between reality and imagination, inviting artists to question the way we observe and interpret the world. The exhibition is rooted in the idea that the uncanny does not necessarily exist somewhere distant or incomprehensible, but can emerge precisely within what we know best.

Through painting, photography, sculpture, digital art, and mixed media, the works presented transform ordinary forms, landscapes, faces, and objects into ambiguous, unexpected, or suspended presences. Recognizable elements are recontextualized, fragmented, or reinterpreted, creating images that move between familiarity and mystery.

Artists are invited to explore the distance between what we see and what we believe we know, revealing perception as a constantly evolving process. An everyday environment can become a mental space, an object can lose its original function, and a figure can take on a new identity, opening the work to multiple interpretations.

Strange Familiar thus offers a journey through altered realities and unexpected perspectives, where the familiar is not an endpoint but the beginning of a new visual experience. The exhibition invites viewers to slow down their gaze, move beyond immediate interpretations, and discover how much enigmatic, poetic, and unknown potential can be found in the things we encounter every day.