The San Marco Art Centre (SMAC) has opened in Venice with a retrospective exhibition presenting the life and work of the 20th century architect Harry Seidler.
The newly opened SMAC occupies sixteen galleries along an 80-metre corridor on the second floor of the Procuratie in Venice, overlooking Saint Mark’s Square.
Recently restored by Pritzker Architecture Prize-winning architect David Chipperfield, the space is characterised by walls of light grey Venetian marmorino, which is made from crushed marble.
The 4.5-metre-high rooms all have white terrazzo floors with ceilings that feature Renaissance-era beams. The galleries include full climate and humidity control.
A landmark agreement with Generali – the owner of the Procuratie, has made SMAC’s residency in the space possible, with the halls of the Procuratie publicly accessible for the first time in 500 years.
One of two exhibitions to inaugurate the new centre, Migrating Modernism: The architecture of Harry Seidler, presents the personal history and work of Vienna-born, Australian architect Seidler.
Seidler escaped Nazi-ruled Vienna at the age of 15, fleeing to England before being interned as an enemy alien and later deported to further internment camps in Canada. Here, after being released, he completed his first degree in architecture.
Seidler later moved to the United States, studying and working under a collection of leading 20th-century architects – Walter Gropius, Josef Albers, Marcel Breuer and a few months with Oscar Niemeyer in Brazil – before moving to Sydney at the age of 24.
The SMAC exhibition features models, drawings and letters from collaborators like Christo and Sydney Opera House architect Jørn Utzon, who called Seidler “a marvellously gifted architect, showing a new way of living in the modern times”.
Founded in 1960, Harry Seidler & Associates‘ early projects included private homes in Sydney for his parents, and also for him and his wife Penelope Seidler, both of which won various awards.
Seidler went on to design a number of pioneering concrete buildings in Australia, like the Australia Square tower, commissioned by Lendlease founder Dick Dusseldorp, which was the world’s tallest lightweight concrete building at the time it was built.
International projects included apartments in Mexico, the Australian Embassy in Paris, a members club in Hong Kong and a housing development in Vienna.
The show makes a particular focus of the artists Seidler worked with and commissioned, such as Josef Albers, Alexander Calder, Helen Frankenthaler, Frank Stella, Lin Utzon and Sol LeWitt, as well as the Italian structural engineer Pier Luigi Nervi.
The exhibition, which coincides with the 19th Venice Architecture Biennale, is curated by Ann Stephen and Paolo Stracchi, with special advisor Nikolaus Hirsch, and organised in partnership with the Chau Chak Wing Museum of the University of Sydney.
The second, simultaneous exhibition, titled For all that Breathes on Earth: Jung Youngsun and Collaborators, presents the work of the Korean landscape architect Jung Youngsun. Beyond the two inaugural exhibitions, SMAC plans to present two to four major exhibitions per year.
Other exhibitions recently featured on Dezeen include the central exhibition of this year’s Venice Architecture Biennale and Do Ho Suh at the Tate Modern in London.
The photography is by Enrico Fiorese unless otherwise stated.
Migrating Modernism: The architecture of Harry Seidler takes place from 9 May to 13 July 2025. See Dezeen Events Guide for all the latest information you need to know to attend the event, as well as a list of other architecture and design events taking place around the world.
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