Born from Fabio Agovino’s passion for art, the Agovino Collection is based in the vibrant and dynamic city of Naples, where from its very beginnings it has stood out for its focus on the present: a constant dialogue with contemporaneity that has taken shape in a collection of more than two hundred works spanning painting, installation, video, and photography.

The Collection made its public debut in 2011 with Rising, an exhibition inspired by a work by Jutta Koether on the importance of bringing everything—including one’s own fragility—to the surface, in order to open oneself to negotiation, relationship, and exchange. Starting from this idea of openness, the Collection has continued over the years to experiment with different languages and juxtapositions within contemporary art. It has explored performance, as in Impulsive Chorus by Martin Soto Climent, which inaugurated its artist collaborations, and has organized exhibitions such as Dio C’è (2014), reflecting on the meaning of collecting, and Frammenti di Paradiso (2017), its first project in a collective space.

Installed in the magnificent Church of San Giuseppe delle Scalze in Pontecorvo, Naples, Frammenti di Paradiso marked a crucial turning point for the Collection, representing a significant affirmation of its identity both locally and nationally, while consolidating its already recognized international presence. Testifying to this resonance, the Collection boasts numerous loans and collaborations with prestigious institutions and galleries, including the MoMA in New York, the Madre Museum in Naples, Parasol Unit in London, the Art Gallery of Alberta (Canada), MAXXI in Rome, and the Triennale di Milano. As early as 2015, it also supported the realization of James Beckett’s installation Negative Space: A Scenario Generator for Clandestine Building in Africa at the 56th Venice Biennale, one example among many supported projects. In 2021, it also contributed to supporting Pedro Neves Marques’s project Vampire in Space for the Portuguese Pavilion at the 2022 Venice Biennale.

The Agovino Collection is distinguished by a methodological approach grounded in archival research, curatorial practice, and an ongoing dialogue with artists. An evolution of Fabio Agovino’s personal experience and the result of a collective vision, the Collection has built a strong projectual coherence over the years. At the heart of its inquiry are works capable of questioning contemporaneity, elevating detail to a universal language. This cultural commitment is expressed through a dense network of exhibitions, talks, and residencies; one example is the synergy with Aquapetra Resort & Spa, which in 2018 saw the presentation of the catalogue Frammenti di Paradiso (CURA.BOOKS) and the activation of temporary exhibitions in collaboration with prestigious galleries.

In 2019, with the participation of Laveronica Gallery, the Agovino Collection promoted The School of Narrative Dance by Marinella Senatore, staging an itinerant performance in Naples from Piazza dei Martiri to the courtyard of Palazzo Sessa, opening new paths of dialogue between the city of Naples and the artists from different disciplines intertwined in her research. Also in 2019, in collaboration with Sara Zanin Gallery, it presented the exhibition Dead Nations: golden age version by Evgeny Antufiev at the Church of San Giuseppe delle Scalze, receiving the Matronage of the Fondazione Donnaregina per le arti contemporanee / Museo MADRE of Naples.

After the halt in activities due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Collection resumed its projects and, in the first part of 2021, inaugurated three exhibitions: Claire Fontaine | Pasquarosa | Marinella Senatore at the Museo Diego Aragona Pignatelli Cortes; Mateusz Choróbski (Radomsko, 1987) and Namsal Siedlecki (Greenfield, 1986) at the Church of San Giuseppe delle Scalze in Pontecorvo; and a solo exhibition by Antonio Della Corte at Palazzo Sessa. In the same year, together with T293 Gallery, it presented Il Miracoloso, a solo exhibition by Isabella Ducrot at the Church of San Giuseppe delle Scalze in Pontecorvo, Naples, where the artist created site-specific works dedicated to the concept of the “possible miraculous.”

The year 2022 opened with another important exhibition, Do Animals Go to Heaven?, curated by Francesca Blandino, a long-standing collaborator of the Collection, at the Church of Purgatorio in Matera. The exhibition aimed to reread the experience of reality through the complex relationship between nature and artifice, and to open glimpses onto imaginaries that bring forth figures filled with questions about the near future. The exhibition project was followed by the publication of a catalogue, the third published by the Collection with CURA.BOOKS.

In 2024, the Collection promoted two important initiatives. The first was the exhibition Prove per un paesaggio d’insieme, curated by Francesca Blandino at Zurich Bank in Naples, investigating the theme of work and its relational aspects within professional spaces. In the second part of the year, in collaboration with Galleria Mazzoleni and at Le Scalze, it once again promoted The School of Narrative Dance (SOND) by Marinella Senatore, the artist’s free, itinerant educational project, which on this occasion unfolded into a collective performance and an exhibition installed within the stratified spaces of the Church of the Scalze.

The exploration of the many directions of contemporaneity has also been enriched by two fundamental stages, focused on the relationship between the artwork and the space that hosts it. With the project at Casa Agovino, the exhibition On Off, the Collection returned to questioning the domestic space, reflecting on the intimate and domestic dimension of art viewing and on the profound connection between art and everyday life. Finally, the exhibition by the duo Pennacchio Argentato at La Santissima marked a further expansion of this research, bringing artistic dialogue back into a community space, where the artists’ work engaged with collective memory and the social function of the site.

Over time, the Agovino Collection has established itself as a fundamental presence in the promotion of contemporary art in Naples, guided by the deep conviction that collecting is a dynamic experience of learning and constant questioning of reality. It is an uninterrupted journey, stretched between past and future, whose meaning lies in continuous movement—opening new perspectives and fostering an ever-living dialogue with contemporaneity.