21Gallery presents until 16 January 2026, in the Treviso headquarters, the visionary art of the Belgian artist Jan Fabre (Anversa, 1958), a great innovator of the contemporary scene. Edited by Dimitri Ozerkov, the exhibition is entitled Songs of the Canaries and Songs of
The Gypsies With reference to the two most recent chapters of his artistic production: Songs of the Canaries (A Tribute to Emel Fabre and Robert Stroud) And Songs of the Gypsies (A Tribute to Django Reinhardt and Django Gennaro Fabre.
Visual artist, theatrical creator and author, capable of blending artistic tradition, philosophy, science and spirituality in a single personal creative universe, Fabre brings to Treviso a corpus of works that cross the essence of human thought, the fragility of life and the transformative power of art. An exploration of the relationship between matter and spirit, thanks to an innovative use of materials such as Carrara marble, Vantablack (the most black existing version of black) and pencil colors and tempera.
The first chapter, Songs of the Canaries (A Tribute to Emel Fabre and Robert Stroud), It is a poetic tribute to the fragility of life, in pursuit of dreams and the continuous search for humanity to understand the sky. Fabre explores these issues through an installation composed of works carved in Carrara marble and colored pencil designs on Vantablack. It is at the center 
of this first exhibition section that is found monumental sculpture The Man Who Measures His Own Planet (2024): A figure stands on a staircase, with his arms stretched as if to measure the immensity of the sky. The body is modeled on that of Fabre himself, while the face refers to his brother who died prematurely, EMIEL, to which the exhibition is dedicated. This first chapter is also a tribute to Robert Stroud, called “Birdman of Alcatraz”, a prisoner who became a renowned ornithologist, specialized in canaries. The second chapter, Songs of T
He Gypsies (A Tribute to Django Reinhardt and Django Gennaro Fabre), Mix the jazz and art with the artist’s personal life, to explore the relationship between fragility and creation in works that combine iconographic tradition and contemporary innovation. The heart of the installation consists of three large Carrara marble sculptures in which Fabre depicts a newborn out of scale, his son Django at the age of 5 and a half months, whose name pays tribute to guitarist Gypsy Django Reinhardt.
«Fabre re -elaborates ancient metaphors in ways that resonate with contemporary issues on the body, the soul and the nature of art. The artist continues to improvise on his themes, turning around a family phrase but always distorting it, making it new and universal “, concludes Dimitri Ozerkov.
A volume published by Silvana Editoriale is available in the gallery, edited by Melania Rossi and Giovanna Caterina De Feo, with critical contributions by Dimitri Ozerkov, Giacinto di Pietrantonio, Melania Rossi and Floriana Conte.
Fabre was recently awarded two prestigious prizes from the international jury of the theater festival in Montenegro (Fiat – Festival Internacionalnog Alternativnog Teatra), for best performance and best director. In conjunction with the Treviso exhibition, from 3 to 30 October 2025, the second edition of the Festival dedicated to the theatrical art of Jan Fabre, entitled Jan Fabre and Mino Bertoldo: 40 years of resistance poetrywhich this year will present six shows, two of which are the first world: La Poésie de la résistance (3, 4, 8 October) with Annabelle Chambon and Cédric Charron e A tribe, here’s what they are with Irene Urciuoli (10, 11 and 22 October). The Treviso headquarters (Viale della Repubblica, 3, Villorba) is open from Monday to Friday with hours 10.00-19.00.
Carlo Franza