Lehmann Maupin has its sights set on Milan, where this spring it will showcase names from its contemporary art roster in a seasonal pop-up space.

The venue will be open during the Miart and Salone de Mobile fairs in the city, a retrospective by gallery artist Nari Ward at the Pirelli Hangar Bicocca in the Bicocca district, and of course, the next Venice Biennale. In a statement, the gallery said it hopes to imitate the success of pop-ups that it has staged in recent years in Aspen, Palm Beach, Taipei, and Beijing.

“It came about in a very organic way,” gallery partner Jessica Kreps, who is spearheading the project, told Artnet News. During a dinner several months ago, Nicole Saikalis Bay, a collector, patron, and the founder of nonprofit Milan art organization Circolo, asked whether the gallery had ever considered a space, even a temporary one, in the city.

It made sense to Kreps. “I’ve been hearing about Milan so much more, for a number of reasons,” she said. “A lot of Europeans have been moving to Milan because of the advantageous tax situation, and though it has always been a major focus for the fashion world, it’s growing in terms of its importance in the art world and the cultural world in general.”

The pop-up will be located at Circolo, which is on Via della Spiga, near the Giardini Indro Montanelli, the city’s oldest park. The inaugural exhibition, running April 12 through June 21, will be a group show with Ward, Hernan Bas, Loriel Beltrán, Mandy El-Sayegh, and Todd Gray.

Ward’s retrospective exhibition is on view at the Pirelli Hangar Bicocca from March 28 through July 28. Meanwhile, Kim Yun Shin, a recent addition to the gallery, will be part of the central show at the upcoming Venice Biennale, titled “Foreigners Everywhere,” which opens to the public April 20.

Noting that the inauguration of the space will roughly coincide with Miart and the Biennale opening, Kreps said, “We’re trying to capture all the traffic in Venice. More and more people are making Milan a stop on their art tour when they go to Venice.”

In 2020, Lehmann Maupin opened in London, its first permanent exhibition space in Europe, and next month, the gallery will open a pop-up location in the city on Cork Street, in the center of Mayfair.

In a statement, gallery co-founder Rachel Lehmann said, “Milan holds a unique position in the arts and culture industry. It’s known for its constant reinvention of design and contemporary art, and it has quickly evolved into a dynamic cultural hub with a fast growing economy.”