Alessia, Roberta and Franco Calarota
Galleria d'arte Maggiore g.a.m. was founded in Bologna in 1978 by Franco and Roberta Calarota, who realized that at the time there was an urgent need to promote the documentation, knowledge, and mediation activities of major Italian artists. The research and enhancement work carried out by Maggiore g.a.m., both in terms of cultural promotion and within the art market, positions the gallery as an organic and authoritative interlocutor in the Italian and International art scene working close to the artists that the gallery rappresented (and still rappresent).
In recent years, starting from 2008, Maggiore g.a.m. revitalized historical figures, presenting them in continuity with the art of living and fully active generations, or through exhibitions of interdisciplinary dialogue. Among the many examples, we can mention the following exhibitions: 'Giorgio Morandi - Joseph Beuys: Interdisciplinary Dialogue"; 'Joan Miró and Antoni Clavé' (2020); 'Dialogue of Light. Giorgio Morandi. Ettore Spalletti' (2015); and 'Massimo Campigli and the Etruscans: a Pagan Happiness' (2021), presented at ACP Palazzo Franchetti by Fondazione Calarota in collaboration with the Superintendency for Etruria - Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage. In recent years, under the direction of Alessia Calarota, Maggiore g.a.m. has also curated interdisciplinary exhibitions like 'Gio Ponti, the Italian House: Giorgio Morandi, Massimo Campigli, Fausto Melotti', organized in collaboration with Gio Ponti Archives (2024), which have linked art with other disciplines.
Galleria d'Arte Maggiore g.a.m. is also renowned for its collection of 20th-century Masters (from Picasso to Magritte), and particularly for its focus on the art of Giorgio de Chirico and especially Giorgio Morandi. The gallery has even produced and organized several Institutional exhibitions dedicated to Morandi in Internationally Museums, receiving coverage in National and International publications such as The New York Times, Forbes, and The Art Newspaper, which have repeatedly associated Morandi with the gallery.
During the last 40 years, Franco and Roberta Calarota dedicated part of the gallery's revenue to the production of Institutional exhibitions; notable examples include the monographic exhibition dedicated to Giorgio de Chirico at the Phillips Collection in Washington D.C., under the patronage of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the exhibition 'Giorgio Morandi. Silenzi' at Palazzo Fortuny Museum in Venice, curated by Franco Calarota and Daniela Ferretti; the major exhibition dedicated to Henry Moore organized in Piazza del Nettuno with the City of Bologna and Mambo (Museum of Modern Art of Bologna); or the commission of public works, such as the monument 'Rampante' by Arman (1999) - realized in collaboration with Imola Municipality - dedicated to Ferrari and placed at the entrance of the Imola racetrack where the San Marino Formula 1 Grand Prix takes place. For more than ten years (from 1992 to 2002), Franco and Roberta Calarota have also managed Palazzo dei Sette in Orvieto proposing many Institutional exhibitions.
Since 2019, Franco and Roberta Calarota have realized their dream by opening a new entity in Venice: ACP Palazzo Franchetti by Fondazione Calarota. Galleria d'Arte Maggiore g.a.m. has always placed great emphasis on collaborations with museums and institutions in Italy and around the world, as evidenced by the significant exhibition 'Giorgio de Chirico. The Factory of Dreams' at the Musée d'Art Moderne de la ville de Paris (2009) or the solo exhibition dedicated to Giorgio Morandi by the Metropolitan Museum in New York (2008).
