Rome occupies a singular position in the European art world. It is a city whose cultural identity has long been defined by antiquity and the Renaissance, and yet it sustains a private gallery scene of genuine range and vitality. The market is not Milan's — it operates without that city's corporate patronage networks and concentrations of serious collectors — but it is not trying to be. Rome's commercial gallery sector draws on a different resource: the steady flow of international visitors, a community of resident artists and academics, a long tradition of aristocratic and diplomatic collecting, and an increasing willingness among younger curators and dealers to work in a city they regard as underestimated. For professionals visiting or researching the scene in 2025 and 2026, the following galleries represent the most active and institutionally engaged spaces in the city.
Gagosian Rome
Gagosian's Rome space at Via Francesco Crispi 16 functions as one of the gallery's more ambitious international outposts. The space, which opened in 2015, regularly presents artists of significant international standing and is treated by the New York and London operations as a genuine programme location rather than a satellite. The gallery's current exhibition for 2026, Mirrored Fiction, running from 11 February to 11 April 2026, presents hyperrealistic bronze and polyester sculptures by Duane Hanson in dialogue with works by Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Andreas Gursky, Jeff Koons, Adam McEwen, and Bruce Nauman. The exhibition engages questions of realism and its contemporary implications, investigating how the representation of everyday life operates across different bodies, images, and social spaces. Hanson's polyester and fibreglass figure Old Lady in Folding Chair (1976) anchors the installation, while Gursky's Politik II (2020) — depicting thirteen German politicians arranged as in a Last Supper configuration — creates a layered conversation about social visibility and documentation. Koons' Donkey from the Easyfun series (1999), in mirror-polished stainless steel, forms part of the broader constellation.
The preceding exhibition, After Nature by Urs Fischer (17 September 2025 – 17 January 2026), presented a suite of new paintings on aluminium depicting dust from the artist's studio floor, a large-scale soft sculpture, and an interactive video installation. Fischer's dust paintings, recalling Man Ray's photograph Dust Breeding (1920), brought together microscopic and macroscopic scales in a sustained meditation on representation and decay.
https://www.gagosian.com/locations/rome/
Galleria Lorcan O'Neill Roma
Opened in 2002 by Irish gallerist Lorcan O'Neill following years working as an art dealer in London — including a period with the painter Cy Twombly in Rome — this gallery has been one of the most consistent and professionally regarded commercial spaces in the city. The principal space occupies a large seventeenth-century building, the former stables of Palazzo Santacroce, in the historic centre at Vicolo de' Catinari 3. A secondary Venice space also now operates.
The gallery represents artists including Martin Creed, Tracey Emin, Anselm Kiefer, Richard Long, Kiki Smith, Jeff Wall, Rachel Whiteread, and Italian artists such as Luigi Ontani, Pietro Ruffo, and Gianni Politi. It was among the first galleries in Rome to present major British and international names, and has consistently offered work by artists whose institutional credibility is well established. Admission is free.
Recent programming has included Giorgio Griffa: Paintings 1980s to 2024 (21 May – 24 July 2025), pairing Griffa's work from the 1980s and 1990s with paintings of the last decade in an exploration of continuing line and colour across a fifty-year practice. Before that, Gianni Politi's Ruins and Revelations (5 February – 27 April 2025) presented new paintings, sculptures, and works on paper developed from the artist's excavation of his own earlier practice. Both exhibitions generated collector interest and gallery sales.
Galleria Continua Roma
Galleria Continua was founded in 1990 in San Gimignano by Lorenzo Fiaschi, Mario Cristiani, and Maurizio Rigillo, making it one of Italy's most internationally active commercial galleries. Subsequent locations have opened in Beijing, Les Moulins (France), Havana, São Paulo, and Paris. The Rome space is housed at The St. Regis Rome, Via Vittorio Emanuele Orlando 3, and is open Tuesday to Saturday, 10.30am to 6.30pm.
The gallery's Rome programme is oriented towards dialogue between contemporary art, international visitors, and the Roman public. It includes an artist residency scheme in partnership with the hotel, selecting young artists from emerging countries to spend time in the capital. The most recent exhibition at the Rome location, Primavera Romana by Adel Abdessemed (12 December 2025 – 28 February 2026), presented a large body of drawings made between 2010 and 2025 — Abdessemed's first solo exhibition in Rome. The exhibition signalled a new phase in Galleria Continua's programming in the capital, following a period during which the space was closed for renovations.
Abdessemed, born in Constantine, Algeria in 1971, has exhibited at MoMA PS1 in New York, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and multiple Venice Biennales. The Rome show brought together works ranging from intimate formats to large-scale pieces, with drawing as an autonomous and non-preparatory medium forming the central argument of the exhibition.
From 16 January to 10 March 2026, the gallery presented three concurrent exhibitions at the Rome space: Navigation privée, Not Alone, and Vibraciones, featuring artists including Alejandro Campins, Carlos Garaicoa, Osvaldo González, Zhanna Kadyrova, Moataz Nasr, Michelangelo Pistoletto, and Hiroshi Sugimoto.
https://www.galleriacontinua.com/location/roma
Galleria Mucciaccia
Founded in 2006 by Massimiliano Mucciaccia, this gallery operates from Largo della Fontanella Borghese 89 in the historic centre, and focuses on modern and contemporary art, with a particular emphasis on monographic exhibitions that function at a near-institutional scale. The gallery has collaborated with public institutions, foundations, and curators to present exhibitions on figures including Giorgio de Chirico, Robert Rauschenberg, Jacques Villeglé, Giosetta Fioroni, and Valerio Adami. It also operates a project space, Mucciaccia Gallery Project, which presents emerging voices alongside its main programme.
In September 2025, Mucciaccia Gallery Project opened Beauty!, a solo exhibition by Austin Young. The gallery is open Monday to Saturday, 10am to 7pm.
z2o Sara Zanin
Established in 2006 and originally located near the Colosseum, z2o Sara Zanin relocated to its current space near Piazza Navona in 2012. The gallery now operates two locations in Rome: the primary space at Via Alessandro Volta 34 and the z2o Project space at Via Baccio Pontelli 16, First Floor.
Sara Zanin's programme focuses on conceptually grounded work by emerging and mid-career artists from Italy and internationally, with an emphasis on practice that reflects on social structures and the hidden or overlooked aspects of everyday experience. The gallery participates regularly in Artissima in Turin.
For 2026, the gallery's current programming includes an exhibition at the main Via Alessandro Volta space (28 January – 12 March 2026) with a text by Marinella Paderni, and a project at the z2o Project space curated by Enrico Camprini (20 February – 11 April 2026). The gallery also has work visible through the Centro della Fotografia di Roma at the Mattatoio, in a show curated by Federica Muzzarelli running 30 January to 29 June 2026.
Monitor Gallery
Monitor was founded in Rome in 2003 and focuses on video art and figurative painting, working primarily with mid-career artists. It operated a New York space in the Lower East Side between 2013 and 2015, and opened a Lisbon location in 2017. The gallery also maintains a space in Pereto, in the Abruzzo region, and its Rome premises are at Via Sforza Cesarini 43 in the historic centre, within walking distance of both Galleria Lorcan O'Neill and z2o Sara Zanin.
Monitor is regarded as one of the galleries best representing the particular qualities of Rome's contemporary scene — attentive to Italian practice without provincialism, engaged with international developments without institutional mimicry.
Deodato Arte
Located on Via Giulia — one of the most architecturally distinguished streets in Rome's historic centre — Deodato Arte's Roman branch is part of a wider commercial network that also includes spaces in Milan, Porto Cervo, and Pietrasanta. The gallery operates an e-commerce platform as well as a physical space and is open Monday to Saturday, 10.30am to 2pm and 3pm to 7pm.
The programme includes works by internationally recognised names from the post-war and contemporary periods alongside figures from the street art world. The gallery holds works by Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró, Marc Chagall, Jeff Koons, Banksy, and Mr Brainwash available for sale, making it one of the more actively commercial spaces in the city. Prices across the range from its online and in-gallery offerings span the affordable to the significant.
https://www.deodato.art/en/art-gallery-rome
Dorothy Circus Gallery
Dorothy Circus Gallery, located at Via dei Pettinari 76, is a well-established commercial space with a particular focus on international contemporary figurative painting, Pop Surrealism, and the intersection of fine art with illustration. Founded and directed by Marta Fossati, the gallery also operates a London space. The programme has included artists such as Andrey Remnev, Jonathan Viner, Kukula, Fatima Ronquillo, and Joe Sorren.
For 2026, the DCG Contemporary programme is oriented around themes of renewal and transformation, with planned exhibitions featuring Clementine de Chabaneix, Elen Bezhen, and others from the gallery's international roster. The London space opened a solo show by Fatima Ronquillo in March 2026. Works are available for sale through both the Rome gallery and the gallery's online platforms.
https://www.dorothycircusgallery.com
Galleria Russo
One of the city's older and more consistently established commercial spaces, Galleria Russo has operated since 1957 from Via Capo le Case 4, near the Spanish Steps. It focuses on major Italian and international artists of the twentieth century and has maintained a programme of significant scope through successive generations of the Italian art market. The address and long institutional continuity place it among Rome's more formally anchored historic galleries.
Galleria Il Segno
With a history reaching back to 1975, Galleria Il Segno operates from Via Capo le Case and has promoted important Italian and international artists across five decades. It is among the institutions that have contributed most to sustaining a professional secondary market for twentieth-century Italian art within Rome.
Fondazione Pastificio Cerere
Not strictly a commercial gallery, but an institution that functions as a significant bridge between studio practice, exhibition, and the market, the Fondazione Pastificio Cerere occupies a former pasta factory from 1905 at Via degli Ausoni 7 in the San Lorenzo neighbourhood. The building was converted in the 1980s by a collective of artists into studio spaces. In 2005 Flavio Misciattelli established the foundation to support and promote young Italian artists. It now hosts solo and group exhibitions, many featuring mixed-media and installation work, alongside fashion ateliers, a photography school, and an arts academy. The space holds a particular place in Rome's cultural geography as an organic development from artist community to institution.
https://www.pastificiocerere.com
The Broader Context: Rome Art Week and the Fair Circuit
Rome Art Week (RAW), held annually in October, provides the broadest single view of the city's gallery and institutional ecology. The 2025 edition, its tenth, involved more than 210 galleries and institutions presenting free public programming across a week. The 2026 edition is scheduled for 19–25 October 2026. The week brings together commercial galleries, artist-run spaces, foundations, and international cultural institutes in a format that, unlike a fair, is distributed across the city itself rather than centralised in an exhibition hall.
Separately, Roma Arte in Nuvola, the city's main contemporary art fair, draws galleries from across Italy and internationally. The 2025 edition involved a substantial number of Rome-based commercial spaces including Galleria Mucciaccia, Galleria Russo, Galleria Valentina Bonomo, La Nuova Pesa, Luma Arte Contemporanea, Deodato Arte, and others.
For art professionals the city rewards sustained attention. It does not function like London, Paris, or even Milan as a primary market, but it contains a number of spaces — Gagosian, Lorcan O'Neill, Galleria Continua, z2o Sara Zanin, Monitor — that operate at a level consistent with the best mid-sized European commercial galleries. It also has a density of older Italian galleries and specialist dealers that make it a useful location for twentieth-century Italian work. The infrastructure around Rome Art Week means that October is a particularly productive time to assess the full range of activity in a relatively compressed period.
Web addresses for all galleries mentioned:
Gagosian Rome: https://www.gagosian.com/locations/rome/ Galleria Lorcan O'Neill Roma: https://www.lorcanoneill.com Galleria Continua Roma: https://www.galleriacontinua.com/location/roma Galleria Mucciaccia: https://www.mucciaccia.com z2o Sara Zanin: https://www.z2ogalleria.it Monitor Gallery: https://www.monitoronline.org Deodato Arte Rome: https://www.deodato.art/en/art-gallery-rome Dorothy Circus Gallery: https://www.dorothycircusgallery.com Fondazione Pastificio Cerere: https://www.pastificiocerere.com Rome Art Week: https://www.romeartweek.com Roma Arte in Nuvola: https://romaarteinnuvola.eu/en/