Experimentation and Research in Contemporary Art: Gabriela Galati talks about her journey and the new gallery WIZARD LAB

In this interview, Gabriela tells us how her career has evolved over time, her sources of inspiration, and the new project she co-founded and is directing, WIZARD LAB, a laboratory gallery where research and art come together, inviting artists to explore new frontiers of contemporary thinking.

How did your journey begin? What inspired you to take this path?

Actually, my journey was not linear, but rather natural, in a sense. After a few years of studying architecture, I realized that my interest was solely in theory. For this reason, I decided to change faculty and study art history. Even before graduation, I had a short experience at the Museum of Modern Art in Buenos Aires, and then started working in a contemporary art gallery. At the same time, I started teaching Research Methodology as an assistant professor at the University of Buenos Aires. From then on, my career has always been divided between the art market and academic research and teaching, first in Buenos Aires and later in New York and Milan, as it still is today. I have been teaching for many years at NABA in Milan, and also at Domus Academy and IED in Turin and Milan. In recent times, I co-founded the gallery WIZARD LAB, which I currently direct.

How has your approach changed over time? Have there been any particularly significant evolutions or moments in your journey?

Obviously, the PhD (at the University of Plymouth, UK) was an important expansion. I felt the
need not only to go deeper into certain topics, but also to develop a methodology with a
more solid conceptual basis than the one I had acquired through my undergraduate degree
and my subsequent research. It was thanks to one of my supervisors, Antonio Caronia, that I
was able to delve into the philosophy and media theory of the posthuman. My doctoral
thesis, later published by Postmedia Books in Italian, focused on art and technology theory,
with a theoretical framework drawn from continental philosophy and posthumanist media
theory, particularly Katherine Hayles. After my doctorate, I expanded my studies on posthuman approaches to the living and the environment. However, it is interesting for me to
note how themes and authors that I had dealt with in my early years of university, during my art history studies, often returned in my research, texts and exhibitions. Moreover, the
confrontation with the artists with whom I collaborate most closely has often been fundamental to my path.

Is there an achievement you are particularly proud of? Can you tell us about your new project WIZARD LAB?

Yes, WIZARD LAB is a project that I am particularly proud of. The gallery came quite naturally out of a partnership with Federico Luger and his brother Riccardo, with whom he
founded WIZARD GALLERY a few years ago. I have known Federico for more than 15 years, we are friends, and I was director of his gallery for several years when it was not yet called WIZARD.

WIZARD LAB, although a partner of WIZARD, is a gallery with a completely different roaster of artists, mission and programming from WIZARD GALLERY. The term "LAB" makes explicit the focus of the artists represented on research and practices that have been deeply concerned for many years with ecology, media and the imeeds they work with, as well as art history. "LAB" is a term that simultaneously refers to the laboratory as the artist's creative studio, the library as a center for theoretical research, and the magician's tower as an alchemical laboratory, which have historically been rich spaces for imaginative experimentation. It also alludes to a time when magic, artistic research, and science, understood as the methodological study of the natural and physical world, were not so rigidly separated. I think, as a gallery owner, having the opportunity to put on exhibitions, participate in fairs, and generally disseminate the work of artists in whom you believe in is a real privilege.

Which artists are you working with and how did the relationship come about?

Ivana Adaime Makac, Sarah Ciracì, Baptiste Debombourg, Ivan Grubanov, and Axel Straschnoy are artists with whom I have collaborated for many years and who have been part of other curatorial or gallery projects, some of which I have evolved or left over time. The dialogue with them has always continued, and, as I mentioned, has often been fundamental to my academic research as well.
All of them, from the very beginning of their careers, have addressed topics that were considered "niche" at the time and that, more recently, have spread widely to become almost trendy. I am referring, for example, to the posthuman, the living, and concern for the environment, themes that are emerging strongly today because of the climate crisis, the global political crisis, and recent discussions about technology and artificial intelligence, just to name a few.
This is also true for artists on the roster with whom I have started collaborating more recently, such as Silvia Bigi and Eleonora Roaro, with whom I had wanted to work for a long time, so the opening of WIZARD LAB was an opportunity to start this collaboration. The same I can say about Wataru Iwata, whom I met during a workshop I gave last year at the University of Tokyo, Yolande Harris and Stefano Cerio, with whom I had already collaborated in the past. Clarissa Falco, Ivy Chilelli and Andrea Samory are younger artists whose research is perfectly in line with what I have just described. I have known Clarissa since the time when she was a student at NABA and we were already collaborating together; while with Ivy and Andrea we started the collaboration precisely with WIZARD LAB.

How did you start the WIZARD LAB programming, and what will be the first exhibition?

The first exhibition opened on January 15 and ended on February 27, 2025. It was dedicated to the last artist I have not yet mentioned-Jean-Marie Barotte. Jean-Marie passed away in 2021 and we exclusively represent his archive for Italy (Fonds Barotte-Madau). With his solo exhibition we opened the year, and it was also the first exhibition of the gallery, curated by Viviana Gatica.
The next exhibition will open on May 7: H for Hybrid, a group show dedicated to the theme of the hybrid, in which we will present new works by Clarissa Falco, Ivy Chilelli, Andrea Samory and the British collective C-LAB (Laura Cinti & Howard Boland). The whole program for 2025-26 is already defined, but we will reveal details later.

How do you see the future of the art world? Are there any changes or trends that you think will influence your work in the coming years?

 I think one of the topics on which there is the most confusion today, and especially profound ignorance at the mainstream level, is artificial intelligence. It is certainly not a new topic, but the fact that it has become trendy and that there are tools accessible to everyone, such as ChatGPT and Midjourney, without almost any of the users (including many artists and art critics) really understanding how they work, interests me (and also worries me a bit). I have been addressing this issue for some time now in some lectures and keynotes, such as in the workshop mentioned above at the University of Tokyo.

From the perspective of artistic practice, at WIZARD LAB I think Eleonora Roaro and Silvia Bigi, or Wataru Iwata, who works more specifically on artificial life, have a solid critical approach. I already have a direction in mind for my research that I will focus on in the next two years.