La gru in volo — Chris Rocchegiani

A contemporary art exhibition in the heart of Palazzo Pianetti

From June 27 to September 6, 2026, the Civic Museums of Palazzo Pianetti, in Jesi (Province of Ancona, Marche), will host "La gru in volo", a solo exhibition by the Jesi-based artist Chris Rocchegiani (Jesi, 1977). The exhibition is set up in the Betto Tesei Exhibition Rooms, the spaces that the Municipality of Jesi dedicates to contemporary art within its most famous eighteenth-century residence, known throughout Italy for its lavish Rococo-style Hall of Stuccoes.

The Dittico Project

"La gru in volo" is part of the three-year project Dittico. Contemporary art in dialogue with cultural heritage, which from 2025 to 2027 will feature two exhibitions per year: one dedicated to an artist from a past generation and one to a contemporary artist, always with works that dialogue with the artistic heritage preserved in the Civic Museums. Six exhibitions in total, designed to intertwine today's creation with the history of art in Jesi and the Marche region. After the initial inaugural stages in 2025, the review continues with this event dedicated to one of the most recognizable voices on the city's contemporary scene.

The Artist: Chris Rocchegiani

A graduate in figurative arts from the State Institute of Art in Jesi and in Graphic Design from ISIA Urbino, Chris Rocchegiani is an artist and art director, and teaches Basic Design at the Department of Design of the University of Camerino as well as at ACCA Academy. Her painting arises from the coexistence of heterogeneous languages: more or less recognizable figurative elements merge with gestural and synthetic parts and with indefinite fields of color of a lyrical character.

• Recurring themes: absence, out-of-body experience, transformation of matter, overcoming physical limits.
• Tensions: masculine and feminine, human and animal, earthly life and spiritual dimension.
• Symbols: the wolf, linked to ancestry and wisdom, and birds — including the crane that gives the exhibition its title, an image of momentum, threshold, and flight.

Rocchegiani's research has been exhibited in significant national venues, including the exhibition Pittura italiana oggi at the Triennale di Milano (2023) and Linea 1201 at MAXXI L'Aquila (2022).

Why Visit

The exhibition allows visitors to experience contemporary painting and the permanent collections of Palazzo Pianetti in a single itinerary, from the Art Gallery to the Contemporary Art Gallery to the Archaeological Museum. An opportunity to read Jesi not only as the city of Frederick II and Pergolesi, but also as a vibrant center of current artistic production.