Upcoming highlights at the 28th edition

miart is the international modern and contemporary art fair in Milan, organised by Fiera Milano and directed by Nicola Ricciardi (April 12–14, 2024 / VIP preview April 11). Through space portals and time corridors, it reaffirms its position as an area for exchange and dialogue between generations, practices and languages that only appear distant from one another, further expanding their geographical and temporal boundaries thanks to 180 galleries divided into three sections: Established is the main section that combines modern, contemporary and artistic design, Emergent which focuses on younger realities selected by Attilia Fattori Franchini, and finally Portal, the new project curated by Abaseh Mirvali and Julieta González.

Presenting a selection of works by the great masters of modern art as well as established contemporary artists, the 146 Italian and international galleries taking part in Established make the exhibition in Milan an outstanding setting for collectors, curators and artists in search of new developments as well as some local character. Many museum works will be at the exhibition, like Caribbean Tea Time from Galerie Lelong & Co. (Paris/New York), a spectacular screen from 1987 by David Hockney whose editions are now in some of the most prestigious international collections, from the Tate Modern to the Metropolitan Museum, or Vivian Suter’s installation designed for the kaufmann repetto (Milan/New York) booth, the result of the artist’s decade-long research into the Guatemalan rainforest and already the focus of two wonderful exhibitions at Secession in Vienna and GAMeC in Bergamo. There are also many works specially commissioned for miart 2024, like the swing designed and created by Francesco Arena for the Galleria Raffaella Cortese (Milan) booth or the work that Pierpaolo Campanini designed for Corvi-Mora (London), a sculptural work that will also serve as a platform for other works by artists like Joseph Beuys, Alighiero Boetti and Roger Hiorns.

The fact that the opening of the 60th International Art Exhibition of the Biennale di Venezia is so close has led many galleries to highlight the artists selected by curator Adriano Pedrosa. Examples of this are a solo exhibition dedicated to the young painter Louis Fratino by Galerie Neu (Berlin) or the ambitious exhibition project of the Richard Saltoun Gallery (London/Rome), which will bring the works of three leading artists at the Venetian exhibition to the event: Greta Schödl, Bertina Lopes and Xiyadie. Galleria dello Scudo (Verona) too pays tribute to the Biennale, presenting a focus on Venetian Spatialism with works from the 1950s by artists like Emilio Vedova, Tancredi Parmeggiani, Renato Birolli and Edmondo Bacci. ED Gallery (Piacenza) in turn presents a selection of works that were created by Murano master glassmakers for the 1914 Biennale di Venezia, in addition to paintings and sculptures.

Finally, also within the Established section is Timescape, an exhibition project curated by the miart team that will be developed over the next three years, bringing works created in eras increasingly remote in time with respect to the exhibition’s traditional chronological offerings to the public’s attention every year. The starting point for this journey will be the Early Twentieth Century, and the galleries taking part will present genuine micro-exhibitions, elevating the exhibition with a transhistorical and wide-ranging approach, making it more attractive to Italian and foreign collectors, curators and professionals. Examples of this are the Galleria Gomiero (Montegrotto Terme) booth, which tells the story of the portrait in the field of sculpture, with works from the beginning of the last century by, among others, Medardo Rosso and Giacomo Manzù, or the exhibition curated by Bottegantica (Milan) and dedicated to some of the key Italian figures of the 20th century, from Giacomo Balla to Umberto Boccioni, with a thematic focus on Futurism and Aeropainting.

The full list of galleries taking part can be found here.