Perth loves Paola Pivi

The Art Gallery of Western Australia celebrates the return of Italian art with Paola Pivi’s largest Australian exhibition, featuring ambitious new commissions, playful yet profound installations, and vibrant works that explore creativity, the environment, and Italian design influences.

Almost a decade has passed since Florence’s coveted Corsini Collection made its highly anticipated arrival to Perth. The exhibition was a major coup for the Art Gallery of Western Australia (AGWA), the only gallery in Australia to exhibit the collection.  Since then, West Australians have been patiently waiting for the next Italian exhibition—and who better to mark the triumphant return of Italian art to AGWA than Milanese artist Paola Pivi. 

“We were wanting to do something that really took on the big central void part of the gallery”, explains AGWA curator, Robert Cook. “We have three levels that are built around this beautiful poured concrete staircase, and we wanted to do something that really addressed what was possible in this space in terms of scale.” 

“We also wanted to look at the institutional DNA of the gallery and how it connects with the city at various points,” he continues. When the gallery was built, art wasn’t something removed from the world, but something to have a conversation through. Paola was the only artist we spoke to about the project, and she was important for us because her work is incredibly serious contemporary art and, at the same time, incredibly accessible to people of all walks of life and backgrounds. She has the ambition and sophistication to really take on those capacities of our building.” 

The exhibition Paola Pivi – I don’t like it, I love it features new commissions created specifically for AGWA, making it one of the largest projects Pivi has ever undertaken. The new works include a giant inflatable comic cell that celebrates the power of human creativity. This piece pays homage to the comic form, which played a vital role in Pivi’s journey from chemical engineering student to artist. 

Other works include 100 suspended trays of colourful liquid, bringing together minimalist modernism, evocations of the beauty of stained glass, and the entangled connections between the sky, light and the gallery architecture. The exhibition also features iconic works from across Pivi’s career, as well as three new feathered polar bears, one of Pivi’s signature motifs. 

“The vibrantly coloured feathered bears have long been a popular favourite for art fans around the world, who are entranced by their very special expressivity”, explains Cook. “As with much of her work, they equally speak to more serious concerns about the fragility of the environment. Their cheerful beauty and tender poses become unexpectedly heart-wrenching when we consider the endangered status of these Arctic giants.” 

Pivi herself was ecstatic to create the new pieces specifically for AGWA. “The new artworks are dreams come true for me,” explains Pivi while in Perth for the opening of the exhibition. “They are artworks that I have been working on and hoping to make for years, and now AGWA is commissioning these works and giving me a chance to see them in reality.  They are extremely important for me, and right now I am one of the luckiest human beings and artists to be able to freely express myself, something that today we are slowly losing.”

While Pivi marks the first major Italian exhibition at AGWA since the hugely successful Corsini Collection in 2018, Cook says he initially didn’t think of Pivi as an Italian artist—until he began working closely with her on the exhibition. 

“I’ve never really thought of her as an Italian artist, but the more I’ve gone into her work and the more time I’ve spent with her, I now see a really distinct Italian thread running through it. With something like Love Addict 2025, you can really see traces of the arte povera artists from 1960s Italy, [but] obviously she takes it to a completely other space. It’s also in the simplicity of the ceiling sculptures in Share, but it’s not fair—there’s a particular way she finishes the work that feels indebted to aspects of Italian design.” 

“Just seeing her and her team talk about how things might be placed and where they might best move out to the viewer, seems like a real high-end design sensibility, and making something really still and pure and uncompromising. There’s this incredible precision that feels like its continuing something in modern Italian design.” 

Cook says the response of both the Italian and local art communities has been overwhelmingly positive. Local businesses like Northbridge gelateria, Chicho Gelato, have are celebrating the exhibition with a collaborative menu item, a matcha tutti frutti sando inspired by Pivi’s work Love addict. 

“Chicho really embraced it, and it’s been amazing. Even the general audience while we were putting up the installations—people stopped at the gallery and were in awe. They’ve never seen art like this before. Even people in the art community might think they know what she does, but this will completely change that.” 

Cook hopes the exhibition will open the doors to future collaborations with Italian artists. “It’s been really interesting opening up this line to contemporary Italian practices, and this may need revisiting”. 

In the meantime, Cook is focused on the moment and hopes West Australians will come to immerse themselves in Pivi’s unique works. “I want the public who is hesitant about contemporary art to know that artists offer many different perspectives, and to embrace them all.” 

AGWA’s director, Colin Walker, adds, “Pivi’s art transforms our expectations of what an artwork can be. It’s delightful, thoughtful, and deeply human. With this exhibition, we aim to offer Western Australians and visitors a rare opportunity to experience the full spectrum of her incredible imagination and insight.” 

Paola Pivi – I don’t like it, I love it runs at AGWA until 26 April 2026.