"The Adventure of Domenico Gnoli" by Domenico Gnoli Exhibits at Lévy Gorvy Dayan

By Madeleine Cronn June 8th, 2026. 

In New York’s Upper East Side neighborhood, "The Adventure of Domenico Gnoli" by Domenico Gnoli was presented by Lévy Gorvy Dayan.

Installation view of “The Adventure of Domenico Gnoli,” Lévy Gorvy Dayan, New York, 2026, featuring Curly Red Hair, 1969. Acrylic and sand on canvas. 79 × 55½ inches (200.7 × 141 cm) All works by Domenico Gnoli © 2026 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/SIAE, Rome, courtesy of Lévy Gorvy Dayan, New York. Photo: Elisabeth Bernstein

A gallery known for its expertise in contemporary art, Lévy Gorvy Dayan rang in spring with a display of works from prolific Italian painter Domenico Gnoli — the artist's largest American exhibition since 1969.

Displayed along two floors of the gallery's six-story Beaux-Arts townhouse, in collaboration with Gnoli’s widow, Yannick Vu, and the artist’s estate, the exhibition ranged across Gnoli’s repertoire throughout his career. From full-scale canvases to etchings, sketches, and notebooks, allowing for a widespread look at the artist's practice and the meditative, surrealistic feeling it inspires.

Born in Rome in 1933, Gnoli has had a poignant career spanning both Europe and America. His work as an illustrator and stage designer brought fame, while his unique painting style and flair for detail cemented his legacy. A close personal friend of former Vogue editor-in-chief Diana Vreeland during his time in New York, Gnoli became deeply entrenched in the city's cultural world and maintained deep ties to its creative heartbeat throughout his life. Although he passed away at the young age of 36, Gnoli’s influence reverberates throughout the art world today, and his singular aesthetic continues to hold a captivating spell.

On the first floor, visitors are met with a number of Gnoli’s commanding still lifes, a style he tended towards later in his career. While depicting everyday objects, his renderings occupy a surreal space, where an armchair, an apple, and the back of a canvas shed their earthbound confines and instead give way to gestural feeling.

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​Installation view of “The Adventure of Domenico Gnoli,” Lévy Gorvy Dayan, New York, 2026. Left: L’inverno (Couple au lit), 1967 Acrylic and sand on canvas47 × 62¾ inches (119.4 × 159.4 cm). Right: Letto verde, 1965 Acrylic and sand on canvas 57¾ × 38⅛ inches (146.7 × 96.8 cm) All works by Domenico Gnoli © 2026 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/SIAE, Rome, courtesy of Lévy Gorvy Dayan, New York. Photo: Elisabeth Bernstein

Occupying the gallery foyer is a close-up of a man in belted grey striped slacks. Displayed singularly against checkered marble flooring, this piece introduces Gnoli’s affinity for scale and meticulous detail. Focusing primarily on the life of the fabric, the slacks' creasing shadows and woven textile lines perform a delicate dance to construct a sculptural feeling of grandeur. A prime example of the artist's talent in monumentalizing the ordinary.

Moving on to the first floor’s farthest room along its west wall, Gnoli’s rendition of a necktie rests suspended in a mass of white space. Magnified till near abstraction, the fabric fills the canvas in concentric layers of deep red, leaving an almost hypnotic impression.

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Domenico Gnoli, Striped Trousers, 1969 Acrylic and sand on canvas 67 × 63¼ inches (170.2 × 160.7 cm). Collezione Privata Rome. @ 2026 Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York/SIAE, Rome, courtesy of Lévy Gorvy Dayan, New York. 

Domenico Gnoli, Red Tie Knot, 1969. Acrylic and sand on canvas. 63¹⁄₁₆ × 63¹⁄₁₆ inches (160.2 × 160.2 cm). Private Collection, courtesy of HomeArt. © 2026 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/SIAE, Rome, courtesy of Lévy Gorvy Dayan, New York.

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Up the gallery's spiral staircase lies the antithesis of Gnoli’s study into human ritual and the intricacies of existence: His famed series of bed paintings. Peaceful and reflective in nature, Gnoli’s depiction of the bed as a place of rest, ritual, and connection veils the exhibition space in a layer of calm. While some works depict human life present in the bed, covered in cloth and shadowed in their stillness, other beds are pictured as remaining empty. Still, the object's tranquil sense remains, ready to connect with life in its most vital routine of sleep.

Walking around this floor is tranquil in and of itself, its grand hallways and naturally light-filled spaces hosting moments of serenity for its guests. In the floor’s south-facing room, a bench is placed dead center in front of a painting of an empty bed, its duvet beautifully spindled with delicate flowers draping down its sides. Textured as if in the lightest aquamarine silk, it maintains lightness despite a statuesque presentation.

As gallery-goers paced back and forth in front of the beds, most would stop in front of this centerpiece, standing still, or taking a pensive seat on the bench. Sometimes alone, or other times with a companion. Maybe they would exchange a few comments, but most took the time to have a quiet moment with Gnoli and his world.

"The Adventure of Domenico Gnoli" by Domenico Gnoli was exhibited from March 18th to May 23rd, 2026.

Domenico Gnoli, Il grande letto azzurro, 1965. Acrylic and sand on canvas. 43¼ × 63⅛ inches (109.9 × 160.3 cm). Private Collection. © 2026 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/SIAE, Rome, courtesy of Lévy Gorvy Dayan, New York.

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