Antichità Alberto Di Castro | The Contemporary Wall
A series of contemporary art exhibitions installed on a single central wall in the gallery’s historic headquarters. The Contemporary Wall (TCW) presents exhibitions highlighting artists working across diverse media and approaches, showcasing varied backgrounds and practices, each contributing a unique vision. Since 1878, each generation of the Di Castro family has renewed the gallery’s identity. TCW marks the latest step in this ongoing evolution.
Rome has always attracted artists and art lovers from all over the world. Its light, its monuments, and its layered history are truly unique. The role of galleries in Rome is to keep this heritage alive, shaping the city’s artistic landscape not only as exhibition spaces, but as genuine cultural actors.
After years in which fairs and global dynamics have dominated the system, there is now a growing need to slow down and re-establish a more direct and meaningful relationship with artworks, artists, and visitors.
In our case, the cultural landscape has changed enormously.
Five generations have witnessed five different phases of Rome, from the pre- and post-war years to the contemporary transformation marked by globalization and the digital era. It is true that many things change — the way artworks are exhibited, the way stories are told. But at the core there is always a pursuit of quality and curiosity, whether it concerns a 17th-century hardstone object or a contemporary artwork.
I believe the next “revolution” will actually be a return: a renewed centrality of the gallery space itself.
After years in which fairs and global dynamics have dominated the system, there is now a growing need to slow down and re-establish a more direct and meaningful relationship with artworks, artists, and visitors.
I was always taught that the great difference between an art dealer and a collector is that the latter keeps the most beautiful things for themselves.
Personally, I consider myself first and foremost a collector of memories. But from time to time, I also find great joy in acquiring artworks for myself: there are certain pieces that spark something in me, a true sense of falling in love.
My first acquisition was a work by Sidival Fila, to which I am deeply attached: it was created using an 8th-century Coptic textile that had belonged to my father.
