BEYOND THE FREEPORT — ISSUE #2

ARTEMISIA GENTILESCHI

WHAT HAVE WE FAILED TO SEE?

Milan, October 2026 — During Milano Jewelry Week, Annelies Nuy presents the second edition of BEYOND THE FREEPORT: an immersive exhibition bringing together twelve paintings by Artemisia Gentileschi that are currently outside regular public view.

The project raises two fundamental questions: what have we still failed to see in her painting, and who determines which parts of our art history remain visible?

Four centuries after her death, Artemisia Gentileschi is still largely viewed through the lens of her personal history. Her courage, her struggles and her exceptional position as a female artist in the seventeenth century have made her a symbol of female emancipation.

But has this emphasis on her biography also obscured something from view?

BEYOND THE FREEPORT shifts the focus from the artist’s life to her way of seeing. The exhibition does not centre on the events that are so often used to explain her paintings, but on the paintings themselves.

The positioning of her figures. The psychological tension within a gesture. The relationship between body and space. The subtlety of her use of colour, the intensity of the light and the sensitivity of her brushwork.

These artistic decisions make another reading possible. What happens when subjects that for centuries were predominantly depicted from a male perspective are painted by a woman? What shifts occur in expression, composition and the relationships between figures? And what knowledge of female experience in the seventeenth century may still be embedded within these images?

The exhibition approaches Gentileschi not solely as an exceptional woman who managed to establish herself in a male-dominated world, but as an artist whose distinctive visual language can deepen our understanding of that world.

WHO OWNS VISIBILITY?

Alongside this art-historical rereading, BEYOND THE FREEPORT addresses a second, equally urgent issue: access to cultural heritage.

A significant part of art history resides in private collections, behind closed doors or beyond public reach. The fact that an artwork may legally be owned by an individual does not mean that its cultural significance is exclusively private.

When important works are removed from public view, we lose more than the opportunity to admire them. We lose the opportunity to study them, compare them, question established interpretations and develop new knowledge.

BEYOND THE FREEPORT brings twelve works by Gentileschi together within an immersive environment, without requiring the paintings to leave their physical locations. In doing so, it creates a space for research, confrontation and new interpretation.

FROM EXHIBITION TO CIRCULATION

The project continues physically through CONVERSATION PIECES — FRAGMENTS OF HISTORY, a collection of twelve sculptural jewellery pieces.

Each object carries a unique identification number and QR code, providing access to a painting and its related history. The pieces therefore function not simply as wearable objects, but as interfaces between art, history and the public.

Through IN CIRCULATION, these Conversation Pieces leave the exhibition space. They are worn, passed on and become catalysts for new conversations. In this way, an alternative form of cultural circulation emerges — one in which ownership of the artwork is no longer central, but access to its meaning is.

With BEYOND THE FREEPORT, Nuy connects artistic research with a critical examination of ownership, visibility and collective memory.

The exhibition does not offer a definitive interpretation of Artemisia Gentileschi. Instead, it opens up the possibility of looking again, beyond the narratives that have surrounded her work for centuries.

WHAT WE CANNOT SEE, WE CANNOT REMEMBER.

BEYOND THE FREEPORT — ISSUE #2
ARTEMISIA GENTILESCHI

Presented during Milano Jewelry Week, 22–26 October 2026.

Immersive exhibition and CONVERSATION PIECES collection.

Private showroom, Milan region.@clubcarponeto Visits by appointment.

PRESS / APPOINTMENTS
Annelies Nuy
www.anneliesnuy.com
https://anneliesnuy.com/collections/in-circulation