Image: Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art, London
The Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art in London has announced 'Emilio Isgrò: Erasing to Create', a survey exhibition charting the Italian artist’s practice from his early verbo-visual experiments of the 1960s to recent work. The show runs from 20 May to 6 September 2026, with the collection also listing a Saturday morning out-of-hours tour on 11 July from 10:00 to 11:00. The exhibition is presented by the museum alongside a programme of talks and workshops.
According to the Estorick, the exhibition traces the development of Isgrò’s best-known practice, Cancellatura, or erasure, in which printed words and letters are selectively obscured to produce new meanings and visual rhythms. The museum’s text says the artist’s approach reflects a conviction that meaning lies beneath layers of information, ideology and convention, and quotes Isgrò’s description of the process as something that “does not destroy but creates; it does not censor but reveals.”
Born in 1937, Emilio Isgrò is presented by the museum as an artist whose work has evolved over more than six decades. The exhibition also highlights his long engagement with maps and globes, which he has treated using the same erasure technique since the late 1960s. In those works, place names, borders and routes are obscured, prompting viewers to consider the relationship between geography, identity and power.
The Estorick says the exhibition offers British audiences a chance to follow Isgrò’s ideas from their earliest, more intimate manifestations to later, more expansive and politically charged expressions. It includes a major new work titled 'Brexit', conceived specifically for the occasion. The show is curated by Roberta Cremoncini and organised in collaboration with the Consulate General of Italy in London and the Fondazione and Archivio Emilio Isgrò.
The museum describes 'Emilio Isgrò: Erasing to Create' as a celebration of more than six decades of innovation in a practice that continues to redefine the relationship between word and image. The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated publication, with the Estorick also listing the show in its shop among current exhibition-related items.
Public programming around the exhibition includes 'Emilio Isgrò Unlocked - Saturday Morning Tour' on 11 July, billed as an out-of-hours intimate tour of 'Emilio Isgrò: Erasing to Create'. The event page says visitors will explore highlights of the exhibition and learn more about Isgrò, whom the museum describes as one of Italy’s most celebrated contemporary artists. The tour is priced at £15 standard, with reduced rates for members and students, as well as limited Open Door tickets.
The Estorick Collection, which says it is a charity without regular public funding, is open Wednesday to Sunday and is offering related family and adult events during July, including a family art day on 26 July focused on Isgrò’s work. The exhibition itself remains on view at the museum through 6 September 2026.
