Draft:Salvatore Ala

Salvatore Ala was born in Paceco, in the province of Trapani, on 16 December 1939. He moved to Milan in the early 1960s, where he began to engage with the growing Italian art scene and to develop relationships with artists and galleries.^[4]

In 1964 he first approached the work of Lucio Fontana, eventually collaborating with the artist and helping to promote his practice across Italy.^[4][5] During these trips he encountered other figures associated with Italian post‑war art, including Piero Manzoni, Mimmo Rotella, Emilio Vedova^[6] and Alberto Burri.^[4]

Ala began to act as an art dealer in the mid‑1960s, organizing exhibitions and supporting emerging artists while developing a network across Italian galleries and institutions.^[4] By the end of the 1960s he had started travelling to major European art centres, where he met many artists, including above all Gerhard Richter, Gilbert & George and Daniel Buren.^[4][7] These early contacts informed the international orientation of his subsequent gallery programmes in Milan and New York.^[4]

Between 1974 and 2011, Salvatore Ala opened and directed five galleries in Milan and New York.^[4]

The first one to be opened was Galleria Salvatore Ala in via Mameli, Milan (1974–1984), focusing on Minimalism and Conceptual art and featuring early European exhibitions of artists such as Joel Shapiro and Agnes Martin. The gallery also hosted performances and interdisciplinary events by figures including Robert Wilson^[8] and his collaborators, and it presented works by artists associated with Minimal and Conceptual practices such as Sol LeWitt, Dorothea Rockburne, Richard Tuttle, Mel Bochner, Dan Graham, Doug Wheeler and others.^[9] The gallery promoted Arte Povera in the international art world, hosting exhibitions by Jannis Kounellis, Alighiero Boetti,^[10][11] Giulio Paolini, Luciano Fabro and Mario Merz. In the late 1970s it expanded its focus to include international figures such as Rebecca Horn, Wolfgang Laib, Gordon Matta-Clark and Anselm Kiefer.^[12][2]

In 1979 Ala opened the Salvatore Ala Gallery at 32 West 20th Street, New York (1979–1988), directed by Caroline Ala.^[13] The gallery opened with an exhibition by Jannis Kounellis and became a key platform for exchanges between Italian artists in the United States and American artists in Italy.^[14][15] During the 1980s, Ala was notably active at the Venice Biennale, presenting American, British and Italian artists in the 1984 and 1986 editions.^[16][17] In 1983 the New York gallery began collaborating with artists associated with the downtown scene, including Keith Haring, Kenny Scharf and Ronnie Cutrone.^[18][19][20] Developing this collaboration, in 1984 Ala hosted the first solo exhibition by Keith Haring in Milan, one of the artist’s earliest institutional presentations in Italy.^[21] The exhibition was documented in Italian press and later exhibitions, and featured alongside other downtown New York practices promoted by the gallery.^[20][22][23]

In the mid‑1980s Ala opened a second Milan gallery in Piazza Umanitaria (1985–1987), with an inaugural solo exhibition by Antony Gormley.^[24][25] The space continued his focus on international and emerging artists, including young British figures^[26][27], and in 1987 the gallery was closed in order to concentrate the activities in New York.^[28][29] In 1988 he moved the Salvatore Ala Gallery to 560 Broadway, New York (1988–1995),^[30] where he continued to host exhibitions by figures such as Gormley,^{[31][32][33][34][35][36][37]} Pino Pascali, Carla Accardi and Fluxus‑related artists.^[38] In those years, Ala's gallery gained more and more importance both in the cultural and the art market field.^[39] This gallery closed in 1995.^[4]

In 1997 Ala opened his fifth gallery, Galleria Salvatore + Caroline Ala, in Milan (1997–2011).^[40][41][42] The gallery’s first programme included a series of solo exhibitions by German artist Günther Förg, titled Facciate nere, finestre bianche,^[43] and later featured exhibitions of both established and emerging European artists, including Christiane Löhr.^[4]

In 2011, after closing his last gallery, it was established Archivio Ala to document and preserve the extensive records of his work as a gallerist. The archive holds a wealth of materials, including photographs, correspondence, and exhibition catalogues, documenting the promotion of contemporary art over five decades and serving as a key documentary resource on post‑war and contemporary art in Italy and the United States.^[44][3]

• Jene Highstein. Five Black Cement Sculptures, Corinna Ferrari, Salvatore Ala Edition, 1977
• Domenico Bianchi, Galleria Salvatore Ala, 1984
• Ronnie Cutrone, Illumination, Galleria Salvatore Ala, 1984
• Gianni Dessì, Giorgio Agamben, Galleria Salvatore Ala, 1984
• Antony Gormley, Lynne Cooke, Galleria Salvatore Ala, 1984
• Richard Hambleton. Painting, Carlo McCormick and Tommaso Trini, Galleria Salvatore Ala, 1984
• Antony Gormley. Drawings, Galleria Salvatore Ala, 1985
• Antony Gormley, Veit Loers, Stadtische Galerie Regensburg, 1985
• Alison Wilding, Lynne Cooke, Arts Council of Great Britain, 1985
• David Finn. Masked Figures, Salvatore Ala Gallery, 1986
• Jeffrey Dennis. Paintings, Jeffrey Godfrey, 1988
• Leoncillo. Works 1958-1963, Maurizio Calvesi and Enrico Mascelloni, Electa, Editori Umbri Associati, Galleria Salvatore Ala, 1990, ISBN 88-435-3122-0
• Fernando Melani. La casa-studio, le esperienze, gli scritti, dal 1945 al 1985, Bruno Corà, Donatella Giuntoli and Ferdinando Melani, Electa, Galleria Salvatore Ala, 1991, ISBN 88-435-3196-4
• Claus Brunsmann, Brigitte Dams, Bärbel Schulte Kellinghaus, Ursula Habermacher, Christiane Löhr, Sandra Voets. MEISTERSCHULE, Marco Meneguzzo and Angela Vettese, Charta, Galleria Salvatore + Caroline Ala,1997, ISBN 88-8158-169-8
• Christiane Löhr, Francesca Pasini, Galleria Salvatore Ala, 2000
• Claus Brunsmann, Heinz-Norbert Jocks, Galleria Salvatore + Caroline Ala, 2000
• Günther Förg. Torso & Fragment: Sculpture, Johannes Gachnang and Max Wechsler, Galleria Salvatore + Caroline Ala, 2000, ISBN 3-88375-410-2
• Christiane Löhr. Tendersi dentro, Giuliano Gori and Christoph Schreire, Gli Ori, 2004, ISBN 88-7336-119-6
• Keith Haring a Milano, Alessandra Galasso, Johan & Levi, 2005, ISBN 88-6010-004-6
• Emilio Vedova, Carlo Bertelli, Charta, Galleria Salvatore + Caroline Ala, 2006, ISBN 88-8158-583-9
• Günther Förg. Felder-Ränder, Rudi Fuchs and Max Wechsler, SNOECK, 2007, ISBN 978-3-936859-65-2
• Ralph Müller. WUM, Catherine Nichols, SNOECK, Galleria Salvatore + Caroline Ala, 2008, ISBN 978-3-936859-92-8
• Salvatore Ala, Selected Exhibitions, Archivio Ala, 2024