Carrie Mae Weems: The Heart of the Matter, Major retrospective features photography, video installations, and newly commissioned series

(Turin/New York, April 10, 2025)—From April 17 to September 7, 2025, at the Gallerie d’Italia, Turin, Intesa Sanpaolo will present Carrie Mae Weems: The Heart of the Matter, a major new exhibition dedicated to the internationally renowned American artist Carrie Mae Weems, known for her trenchant investigations—anchored in photography—of history, representation, and injustice through the lens of race, gender, and class.

This concise retrospective places Weems at the center of the story. It features works from Weems’s most famous series in which she appears as both guide and muse, tracing a spiritual and personal journey across the artist’s entire career. The exhibition will also debut a new series commissioned specifically for this project by Intesa Sanpaolo.

Sponsored by the Region of Piedmont and the City of Turin, the exhibition is produced in collaboration with Aperture and curated by Sarah Meister, Executive Director, Aperture.

Carrie Mae Weems: The Heart of the Matter highlights Carrie Mae Weems’s distinctive approach to addressing the complexities and injustices of the world around us. As the artist has noted, “I discovered that I was the reference point, and the point of view, pointing the viewer toward the likes of me in history. Later, I understood this photographic self to be a muse and a guide into the unknown. Miraculously, the muse evolved out of my resistance to photographing people without permission, and in the process, I discovered an entirely new way of working and indeed discovered myself. Praise God.”

Her photography is deeply rooted in places often excluded from historical narratives—artists’ studios, plantations in the American South, domestic spaces, and the “invisible institutions” born of violence and oppression that sheltered Black Americans during worship—juxtaposed against images of monuments and museums that have historically been sites of exclusion.

At the heart of the retrospective is Preach, the newly commissioned project created specifically for this exhibition, an ambitious and powerful installation exploring religion and spirituality among Black Americans across generations. The series celebrates the profound, passionate, and joyful forms of worship that typify Weems’s own experience of the Black Church, while also confronting the violence and oppression inextricably linked to this history. In her original narrative accompanying the installation, Weems writes: “Burned and bombed, you pray where and when you could, in bush harbors and huts, tenements and basements, theatres and clubs. From your secret hiding place you discovered new forms of worship.” Weems invites us to bear witness to the persecution that has made these sacred spaces both places of refuge and centers of activism. Preach weaves together early images from Harlem, southeast San Diego, and Sea Island, Georgia, with a wide range of new works that capture the transcendental and secular realities of religious expression for Black Americans today.

The retrospective also includes several of Weems’s early bodies of work, such as the landmark Kitchen Table Series (1990) and Museums (2006–ongoing); a generous selection from more recent projects, such as Scenes and Takes (2016) and Painting the Town (2021); and major video installations including The Shape of Things (2021) and Leave Now! (2022). Together, these works take visitors on a journey spanning the full arc of her career, showcasing the depth and range of her artistic language.

The exhibition Carrie Mae Weems: The Heart of the Matter will be accompanied by a lavishly illustrated catalog published by Società Editrice Allemandi in collaboration with Aperture. In addition to a fresh representation of Weems’s most important work in photography and video, the catalog will feature newly commissioned contributions from scholars across generations, highlighting the reach of her impact. The catalog also includes a Guide to the Works, which provides a valuable scholarly framework for approaching both familiar and lesser-known series.

A series of free events and discussions, part of the #INSIDE public program, will take place every Wednesday in the museum. Additionally, local community initiatives focused on education will be organized with the support of the Compagnia di San Paolo Foundation.

The exhibition is organized as part of the second EXPOSED: Torino Foto Festival.

Opened in May 2022, Gallerie d’Italia, Turin, is a museum dedicated to photography and video art. In recent years, it has hosted newly commissioned exhibitions by photographers and artists such as Paolo Pellegrin, Gregory Crewdson, JR, Luca Locatelli, Cristina Mittermeier, and Mitch Epstein, as well as the project La Grande Fotografia Italiana, which celebrates the great masters of Italian twentieth-century photography.

The museum in Turin, along with those in Milan, Naples, and Vicenza, Italy, is part of Intesa Sanpaolo’s Gallerie d’Italia museum project, led by Michele Coppola, the bank’s Executive Director of Art, Culture, and Historical Assets.

USEFUL INFORMATION

WHERE: Gallerie d’Italia – Turin, Piazza San Carlo 156, Turin

OPENING TIMES: Tuesday, Thursday–Sunday from 9:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Wednesday from 9:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Closed on Monday. Last entry 90 minutes before closing.

TICKETS: Full price €10, reduced €8, free admission for members, schools, under-18s and on the first Sunday of the month; special reduced price of €5 for under-26s and Intesa Sanpaolo Group customers

INFORMATION AND BOOKINGS: gallerieditalia.com, torino@gallerieditalia.com, Freephone 800167619

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About Aperture
Aperture is a nonprofit publisher that leads conversations around photography worldwide. From our base in New York, Aperture connects global audiences and supports artists through our acclaimed quarterly magazine, books, exhibitions, digital platforms, public programs, limited-edition prints, and awards. Established in 1952 to advance “creative thinking, significantly expressed in words and photographs,” Aperture champions photography’s vital role in nurturing curiosity and encouraging a more just, tolerant society. For more information on Aperture, visit: aperture.org

Aperture’s programs and operations are made possible by the generosity of our board of trustees, our members, and other individuals, and with major support from 7G Foundation, Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation, Charina Endowment Fund, Documentary Arts, Ford Foundation, Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, Marta Heflin Foundation, Ishibashi Foundation, Joy of Giving Something, Anne Levy Charitable Trust, Henry Luce Foundation, Mailman Foundation, MurthyNAYAK Foundation, Grace Jones Richardson Trust, San Francisco Foundation, Thomas R. Schiff Foundation, Jane Smith Turner Foundation, Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Stuart B. Cooper and R. L. Besson, Kate Cordsen and Denis O’Leary, Thomas and Susan Dunn, Agnes Gund, Michael Sonnenfeldt, Jon Stryker and Slobodan Randjelović, National Endowment for the Arts, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and New York State Council on the Arts, with support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

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About Intesa Sanpaolo
Intesa Sanpaolo, with 422 billion euros in loans and 1,400 billion euros in customer financial assets as of the end of September 2024, is the largest banking group in Italy with a significant international presence. It is a leader at the European level in wealth management, with a strong focus on digital and fintech. In the ESG sector, by 2025, 115
billion euros in impact disbursements are planned for the community and the green transition. The program in favor of and in support of people in difficulty amounts to 1.5 billion euros (2023-2027). The Bank’s museum network, the Gallerie d’Italia, serves as an exhibition venue for its own artistic heritage and for cultural projects of recognized value.

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Press contacts

Aperture:
Lauren Van Natten
publicity@aperture.org

Intesa Sanpaolo:
Silvana Scannicchio
silvana.scannicchio@intesasanpaolo.com

Andrea Ferro
andrea.ferro1@intesasanpaolo.com