Palazzo Luce

Anselm Kiefer (b. 1945, Donaueschingen) is one of the most influential artists of his generation.
His practice moves across painting, sculpture, installation and artist’s books, engaging with history, memory, mythology and literature.

Through monumental works and alchemical materials—lead, ash, straw, earth—Kiefer confronts the weight of the past and the fragility of cultural memory, transforming destruction into poetic and spiritual inquiry.

Anselm Kiefer, Ave Maria turris eburnea (2018–2025).
Resin, steel and clay bricks form a vertical invocation: a tower held aloft, fragile and monumental at once.

Drawing from the Litany of Loreto and the poetic imagery of the Song of Songs, Tower of Ivory becomes an architectural metaphor of purity and spiritual elevation.
A symbol of nobility and inviolability, where matter bears the weight of devotion, memory, and transcendence.

photo credit

In “Rosa, fiore di pesco”, Ettore Spalletti transforms colour into an atmosphere rather than an image. The board, touched by a delicate rose hue, becomes a luminous field where perception slows down and the surface quietly absorbs and releases light.

The work reflects Spalletti’s lifelong exploration of colour as space — a presence that reshapes the environment through subtle shifts, gradients, and the way light settles upon it. Nothing is narrative or decorative: the colour stands as an experience, a suspended moment between inner and outer vision.

“Rosa, fiore di pesco” embodies this meditative approach, where the boundary between painting, light, and perception becomes almost imperceptible.

photo credit

cielo, scale, passaggi, saloni, dimore, volte, LUCE.

In the historic heart of Lecce, the first art and design house museum: a 14th-century residence with a contemporary soul.
Palazzo Luce invites guests to experience the unique feeling of living inside an art house — an intimate, private, and exclusive dimension enhanced by dedicated hospitality and personalized service.
A space that also transforms to host refined private events, where art and design become part of the experience.

Discover more at palazzolucelecce.com

Andrea Bowers — Total Bodily Autonomy (2022)

Part of a series of paintings on recycled cardboard collages, Total Bodily Autonomy reflects Bowers’ ongoing dialogue with archival materials and political iconography. Drawing from early 20th-century feminist graphics, the work reinterprets a 1911 Italian poster illustrated by Riccardo Salvadori for the costume ball “Femminismo” at Teatro alla Scala.

By portraying the same woman in underwear and men’s trousers, Bowers revives a historic image of emancipation—paying tribute to the women who, over the past century, fought to transform the condition of women in Italy.

First picture by
Secondo picture by

Andrea Bowers lives and works in Los Angeles. For over three decades, her practice has intertwined art and activism, addressing themes such as civil rights, feminism, ecology, and social justice. Through drawing, video, installation, and neon, Bowers explores the potential of art as a tool for awareness and collective engagement. Her work translates activism into a visual language that is both direct and poetic, where craftsmanship becomes a political act and a gesture of empathy.

is a multifaceted figure in the contemporary art scene: critic, curator, author, and professor at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Milan.
He collaborates with La Repubblica, Flash Art, and several other art publications, and has curated numerous exhibitions in public and private institutions across Italy, exploring the relationship between art, territory, and memory.
Author of essays and catalogues dedicated to artists of the twentieth century and the contemporary scene, he works between Milan and Salento.
A close presence within Palazzo Luce, he contributes to the project’s growth and to the artistic dialogues that animate it.

Lorenzo Madaro is a multifaceted figure in the contemporary art scene: critic, curator, author, and professor at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Milan.
He collaborates with La Repubblica, Flash Art, and several other art publications, and has curated numerous exhibitions in public and private institutions across Italy, exploring the relationship between art, territory, and memory.
Author of essays and catalogues dedicated to artists of the twentieth century and the contemporary scene, he works between Milan and Salento.
A close presence within Palazzo Luce, he contributes to the project’s growth and to the artistic dialogues that animate it.

is a multifaceted figure in the contemporary art scene: critic, curator, author, and professor at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Milan.
He collaborates with , , and several other art publications, and has curated numerous exhibitions in public and private institutions across Italy, exploring the relationship between art, territory, and memory.
Author of essays and catalogues dedicated to artists of the twentieth century and the contemporary scene, he works between Milan and Salento.
A close presence within Palazzo Luce, he contributes to the project’s growth and to the artistic dialogues that animate it.

Like a garden suspended above the city, the terrace of Palazzo Luce opens onto Lecce bathed in golden light. Mediterranean-inspired canopies create shaded corners, while hand-painted ceramics by , designed by and inspired by Ponti, animate the space with color. The same motifs flow into the pool, where green hues evoke the shimmer of natural water. Here, between rooftops and sky, guests can pause for an aperitivo at Bar Ponti Cielo—paved with exclusive maiolica pebbles once loved by Ponti—or stay for dinner as the evening descends.

Ph. by

For the garden of Palazzo Luce, envisions a site-specific project that weaves together botany, Renaissance geometry, and layers of history. A living artwork in dialogue with the identity of the place, rooted in the plan of the dome of Santa Maria della Sanità in Naples and in Mediterranean flora. The result is a concept-garden that reflects the memory of the site and the artist’s vision, transforming the outdoor space into a palimpsest of forms, references, and possibilities.
At the core of Guido’s research lies the oak tree—particularly the Quercia Vallonea and its galls—as a symbol of both biological process and cultural heritage. Drawing from botanical studies and fresco fragments found inside the Palazzo, the artist reimagines branches in ceramic, sculptural galls inhabited by insects, and vegetal textures that speak to the circularity of life and architecture. In this garden, vegetal and mineral architecture coexist: nature becomes narrative, and the past takes root in a living, ever-evolving ecosystem.

Michele Guido (Aradeo, 1976) has long explored the intersection of botany, architecture, and art history, creating installations that function as project, map, and narrative.
Trained at the Brera Academy and the Ratti Foundation, his work focuses on the layering of languages, time periods, and cultural references.
For Palazzo Luce, he has created The Garden of Michele Guido, a site-specific work that reflects on the identity of the place through the language of plants, geometry, and memory.
A garden conceived as a narrative device, designed to grow over time.

photo credit