Sanlorenzo - A Decade of Arts Patronage

Sanlorenzo Arts is the cultural platform of Sanlorenzo, founded on the belief that true excellence is inseparable from culture, responsibility and craftsmanship. Established in 2016 with the brand’s first engagement at Art Basel Miami Beach, it has evolved over a decade from an instinctive act of patronage into a structured, international programme supporting art, design and creative dialogue. In 2026, Sanlorenzo Arts celebrates its tenth anniversary with its most expansive cultural programme to date — a year-long calendar of exhibitions and installations across art, design and craftsmanship, anchored by the first full year of activity at Casa Sanlorenzo in Venice. Rooted in the Maison’s values of innovation, restraint and timelessness, Sanlorenzo Arts operates at the intersection of art, sustainability, design and the sea — a unifying metaphor deeply embedded in the yacht maker’s identity.

Over the past 10 years, it has developed long-term institutional partnerships and artistic collaborations that reflect a sustained commitment to cultural leadership. Milestones include Sanlorenzo’s role as Global Host Partner of Art Basel (2018–2023), Institutional Patron of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, and Main Sponsor of the Italian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale — the first shipyard to assume this role. The brand has also participated in Milan Design Week since 2017, earning the prestigious Compasso d’Oro ADI in 2020 for the installation Il mare a Milano at La Triennale. In 2025, this journey culminated in the opening of Casa Sanlorenzo in Venice, a carefully restored 1940s mansion overlooking the Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute. Conceived as a permanent cultural home for the brand, and designed by Piero Lissoni, Casa Sanlorenzo provides a year-round platform for exhibitions, research and dialogue beyond the temporal boundaries of fairs and events. Its inaugural exhibition, Breathtaking by Fabrizio Ferri, set the tone for the space, using powerful imagery to address ocean pollution and reaffirm art’s role as a catalyst for awareness and action. Today, Sanlorenzo Arts stands as the cultural compass of the Maison: a long-term commitment to supporting ideas, championing craftsmanship and fostering meaningful exchanges between creativity and sustainability — extending Sanlorenzo’s voice beyond yachting and into the wider cultural landscape.

Sanlorenzo marks a decade of committed patronage of the arts in 2026 with a year-long cultural programme spanning art, design, craftsmanship, innovation and sustainability. Its most ambitious artistic calendar to date is anchored by the first full year of activity at Casa Sanlorenzo in Venice and reinforces the Maison’s long-held belief that excellence is inseparable from culture and responsibility.

The anniversary year positions Sanlorenzo Arts as a forward-looking champion of creative dialogue, artistic expression and cultural leadership. From the Venice Biennale to Milan Design Week and Homo Faber in Città, Sanlorenzo will engage the international cultural community through a sequence of carefully curated initiatives sitting at the intersections of art, science, design and the sea.

Making waves during the Biennale d’Arte

The 2026 programme is headlined by Waves, Sanlorenzo’s first-ever proprietary exhibition during Venice’s Biennale d’Arte, running from 6th May to 28th June at Casa Sanlorenzo.  Curated by Sergio Risaliti, Director of the Museo del ‘900, in Florence, and Cristiano Seganfreddo, with the scientific support of Ersilia Vaudo Scarpetta, these last two members of the Scientific Committee at Sanlorenzo Arts, the group exhibition explores movement and transformation as universal languages, bringing together art, science and emotion through the unifying metaphor of the sea.

The exhibition features an exceptional dialogue between masters of modern art and sculpture — Alexander Calder, Fausto Melotti, Lucio Fontana and Tony Cragg — and contemporary voices including Christine Safa, and visual artists Friederich Andreoni and Marcello Maloberti, positioning the wave as both a physical force and a cultural symbol deeply rooted in Sanlorenzo’s identity.

A vision for culture leadership

“Over the past ten years, Sanlorenzo Arts has grown from an instinctive passion into the cultural compass of our organisation. Guided by a belief that culture and responsibility are not complements to excellence, but its foundation. To support culture is to invest in ideas, champion craftsmanship, and encourage the courage to question the present while imagining the future.

“It was in this spirit that we opened Casa Sanlorenzo in 2025 as a permanent cultural home for Sanlorenzo Arts. With our first full-year programme, our ambition is clear — to build a platform where art, sustainability and design exist in meaningful dialogue, reflecting the restraint, innovation and timelessness that define Sanlorenzo in yachting.”

 - Massimo Perotti, Executive Chairman of Sanlorenzo

10 years of supporting the arts

Beginning at Art Basel Miami Beach in 2016, Sanlorenzo’s engagement with the arts emerged as an instinctive commitment, rooted in a desire to connect the shared values of the Maison and its community of connoisseurs. Over time, this vision has evolved into a structured cultural platform grounded in responsibility and expressed through institutional partnerships, commissioned works, and long-term collaborations with artists, curators and institutions. 

Key milestones include Sanlorenzo’s role as Global Host Partner of Art Basel from 2018 to 2023, Institutional Patron of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, and Main Sponsor of the Italian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale — the first shipyard ever to assume this role. This journey also includes presence at Milan Design Week since 2017, with the award-winning installation Il mare a Milano at La Triennale, recipient of the Compasso d’Oro ADI in 2020 - the most historic and authoritative design honour in the world.

The path culminated in June 2025 with the opening of Casa Sanlorenzo in Venice, restored by Piero Lissoni and Lissoni & Partners and inaugurated during Venice Climate Week. Conceived as a permanent cultural home, Casa Sanlorenzo enables research, dialogue and artistic production beyond the temporal boundaries of fairs and events. The inaugural exhibition, Breathtaking by Fabrizio Ferri, set the tone for this mission, using powerful photography to confront ocean pollution and reaffirm art’s role as a catalyst for awareness and cultural action.

With its 2026 programme, Sanlorenzo Arts confirms culture as a long-term commitment — one defined by continuity, depth and responsibility. Through Casa Sanlorenzo and its growing international platform, the Maison continues to extend its cultural voice beyond yachting, with the past ten years serving not as a conclusion, but as a foundation.

Sanlorenzo’s 2026 cultural calendar

April 2026 – Milan Design Week

Sanlorenzo returns to the INTERNI exhibition programme in Milan with a new installation by Piero Lissoni at the Università degli Studi di Milano. Exploring Sanlorenzo’s unique dialogue between interior and exterior, design and navigation, the work will provide a glimpse of how the brand crafts the icons of tomorrow.

 6 May – 28 June 2026 – Waves

Waves opens at Casa Sanlorenzo, running during the Venice Biennale d’Arte period as a landmark exhibition within the city’s cultural ecosystem. Curated for Sanlorenzo by Sergio Risaliti Director of the florentinian Museo del ‘900, Cristiano Seganfreddo, with the scientific support of Ersilia Vaudo Scarpetta, the installation showcases the work of masters such as Calder, Melotti, Fontana and Cragg, alongside emerging contemporary artists.

 3-8 June 2026 – Venice Climate Week

As a founding partner of the event, Sanlorenzo will again participate at Venice Climate Week, opening the doors again to Casa Sanlorenzo for dialogue, science, and collective action on climate change.

 1-30 September 2026 – Homo Faber in Città

Casa Sanlorenzo also serves as a host venue for Homo Faber in Città, the part of Homo Faber 2026 taking place outside of Fondazione Giorgio Cini, curated by the Michelangelo Foundation for Creativity and Craftsmanship. Casa Sanlorenzo will host two exhibitions showcasing craft excellence from Venice, the Veneto Region and Luxembourg.

 12 October – 24 November 2026, November – Roselena Ramistella, Casa Sanlorenzo

The 2026 programme concludes with a solo exhibition by Sicilian photographer Roselena Ramistella at Casa Sanlorenzo. Commissioned by Sanlorenzo, her work documents life on Italy’s lesser-known islands outside of the tourist season – and the islanders who inhabit them.