The artist who put a knife through the canvas — and, in doing so, redefined what a painting could be — gets his Hong Kong debut this autumn. “Lucio Fontana: Spatialism. Pioneering the Contemporary” opens at Hauser & Wirth Hong Kong in September, closing out a three-city trilogy that began in Los Angeles and continued in New York.
In This Guide
Who was Lucio Fontana?
Lucio Fontana (1899–1968) was the Argentine-Italian founder of Spatialism, a movement that argued painting needed to break free of the flat canvas and engage directly with real space. His best-known gesture — slicing or puncturing the canvas with a blade — wasn't vandalism for its own sake, but an attempt to let light and space pass through the picture plane itself, turning a two-dimensional surface into something closer to sculpture.
Those punctures and cuts became two enduring bodies of work: the “Buchi” (Holes), begun in the late 1940s, and the more famous “Tagli” (Cuts) of the 1950s and 60s. Both are central to this Hong Kong exhibition, which traces how the idea evolved across nearly two decades of Fontana's career.
What's in this exhibition?
Curated by art historian Luca Massimo Barbero, the exhibition presents works from 1949 onward, tracing Fontana's evolution from his earliest punctured canvases through to the mature, ritualised cuts of his later career. Expect a tightly focused, scholarly hang rather than a broad survey — the kind of show built for visitors who want to understand the logic behind the gesture, not just see a famous slashed canvas up close.
The exhibition is realised in collaboration with Fondazione Lucio Fontana, the artist's foundation in Milan, which has worked with Hauser & Wirth on this trilogy across three continents.
Why is Hong Kong the final stop?
Hong Kong marks the third and final chapter of a Fontana trilogy realised by Hauser & Wirth in partnership with Fondazione Lucio Fontana, following presentations in Los Angeles in 2020 and New York in 2023. Landing the closing chapter in Hong Kong is a deliberate statement about the city's weight in the global gallery circuit — and it slots neatly alongside other major autumn shows in town, including Herzog & de Meuron: In Focus at M+, which opens the same week just across the harbour in West Kowloon.
For anyone building a gallery-hopping itinerary around Hong Kong's autumn art season, Hauser & Wirth's Central address puts Fontana within easy reach of the Pedder Building and H Queen's gallery cluster, making it simple to pair with a wider afternoon of art-viewing.
Lucio Fontana: Spatialism. Pioneering the Contemporary
Curated by Luca Massimo Barbero, in collaboration with Fondazione Lucio Fontana, Milan. This is the final chapter of a trilogy that previously showed in Los Angeles (2020) and New York (2023).
Getting there
Hauser & Wirth's street-level Central space sits at the junction of Queen's Road Central, Duddell Street and Ice House Street — a short, flat walk from Central MTR Station, Exit G. It's an easy add-on to a browse of the Pedder Building's gallery floors or a wider afternoon around Central's art cluster. For more of Hong Kong's autumn exhibition calendar, see our guide to Herzog & de Meuron: In Focus at M+ and our Art section.
Frequently Asked Questions
Worth knowing
Lucio Fontana: Spatialism opens 17 September 2026 at Hauser & Wirth Hong Kong — free entry, no booking, and the closing chapter of a three-city trilogy. Plan an afternoon around it with the rest of Central's gallery cluster.