Jean Blanchaert

Jean Blanchaert (Milan, 1954) is a contemporary art gallerist, curator and art critic. The Galleria Blanchaert, in Milan, set up in 1957 by his mother Silvia, has held hundreds of exhibitions in Italy and abroad featuring the work of some of the leading artists/craftsmen in the world. Blanchaert has curated dozens of exhibitions in institutional places, on glass, ceramics, iron, wood and marble, as well as art and photography.

He has been a permanent contributor to the monthly magazine Art e Dossier (Giunti Editore) since 2008. 

Since childhood, Jean Blanchaert has always been passionate about Albania. Finally in 1987, keen to visit the country, he passed an exam on Marxism/Leninism at a cultural association in Bovisa in Milan. He managed to get his visa and took a 20-day organised tour of the country with his wife, at the time Ramiz Alia was in power. There is a film about this first trip.

Blanchaert went back to Albania three more times after the fall of the regime. His last journey was in 2018, on the lookout for high craftsmanship, led by the designer Rea Xhillari. 

As part of the Homo Faber. Crafting a More Human Future (Venice, 2018) he and Stephano Boeri curated the exhibition Best of Europe, which showcased hundreds of objects made by more than 150 artists/craftsmen from all over Europe. Three of them were from Albania: Gezim Hidri (stone sculptor), Llazi S.Icka (wood sculptor) and Egla Memaj (a master of golden thread embroidery).

He is curating the exhibition Next of Europe, again for Homo Faber and again with Stefano Boeri, slated for April 2022 at the Cini Foundation in Venice.