miart’s Three-Tier Experiment Reflects a Changing Milan

In the run-up to the chaos that is Salone del Mobile and Milan’s design week—as attested by the many construction sites throughout the city—miart opened with its own offering, vying for a place in the Italian art scene. The fair, which ran from April 17 to 19, inaugurated its 30th edition within a new location in Allianz MiCo conference hall in Milan’s northwestern district. It featured early twentieth-century works—with plenty of Lucio Fontana, Gino Severini and Alighiero Boetti to go around—as well as a wide swathe of contemporary practices. This inclusion of modern art notably distinguishes the fair from Artissima, the Turin-based autumn fair dedicated exclusively to contemporary work.

The peculiar architecture of Allianz MiCo overlooks the impersonal CityLife mall and several skyscrapers; one miart attendee remarked that this backdrop “brings a little Dubai to Milan.” The fair, which had 60 percent Italian representation and 40 percent international representation, was divided into three sections layered across three floors. This was the first time the fair was configured as such, and the change was considered disruptive; galleries were worried their collectors might not find them. However, miart’s fair director Nicola Ricciardi felt the pause between floors would be “refreshing” for the gaze: “It helps the collector pay more attention. They have to readjust.” He added, “We needed to offer people something different. These are not the times for cut and paste, always doing the same thing.” Some felt the top floor (with the most prominent galleries) was neglected due to poor signage, while others found it easier to distinguish between the strata of art offerings because they weren’t all compressed in the same amorphous space. 

One Milanese journalist noted some absences at the fair, including gallerists ArtNoble, UNA galleria and Galleria Raffaella Cortese, a signal, perhaps, that the fair wasn’t a unilaterally appealing event despite its breadth.

Ricciardi noted that “Milan is never going to be Paris… we’re never going to have a Tour Eiffel.” But the contemporary art scene in Milan has “improved dramatically” over the past decade, Ricciardi said. The introduction of a 5 percent VAT tax last year—down from 22 percent, and now on par with France and Germany—has, per Ricciardi, led to a 20 percent increase in sales within the Italian art market.

miart’s Emergent section, encompassing 29 galleries, functioned as the de facto starting point, placing these booths in the path of visitors heading down to the larger Established section below. The first work visible in Emergent was a quilted textile piece at Ferda Art Platform, an Istanbul gallery presenting a monographic display by Güneş Terkol, with all works priced under €10,000. Further in, Milan’s MATTA gallery was showcasing deliberately mismatched Theresa Büchner images that re-appropriated stills from 1980s German films (€1500-€6000). Gaa Gallery, from New York and Cologne, featured bright figurative paintings plus ceramic works by Los Angeles-born, London-based Katja Farin (€1500-€16,000). Four galleries that had shown in Emergent in previous years—Eastcontemporary, Ginny on Frederick, Rose Easton, and zaza’—graduated to the Established section.

Downstairs, the Established section housed an intense concentration of 111 galleries. The conference center walls here were painted black, lending the space a cave-like quality. One attendee jokingly described taking the escalator  down to the Established section as “descending into hell.” 

Francesca Kaufmann of kaufmann repetto spoke with candor about the legacy of the fair. “miart used to be a bad fair—a very bad fair,” she remarked, recalling how everyone would instead travel to Turin’s Artissima for a barometer on contemporary art. According to Kaufmann, miart’s turnaround began roughly a decade ago when Emanuela Forlin took on her role as Exhibition Manager. She met with various Milanese galleries—kaufmann repetto included—and helped renegotiate the fair’s standing with its owners, who also oversee bigger commercial events for unrelated sectors like eyewear and bridal. The appointment of Vincenzo de Bellis—now Director of Fairs and Exhibition Platforms at Art Basel—also brought new energy and direction. Today, Kauffman sees miart as: “part of the project of our city.” She was formerly on the fair’s committee and still is a participatory voice. The gallery experienced solid success in terms of sales, with both Italians and foreign clients picking up works by Vivian Suter, Pae White, Bruno Munari, Katherine Bradford and Lily van der Stokker. Works on the stand ranged from €2000 to €80,000.

Ludovica Barbieri, a partner at MASSIMODECARLO, founded in Milan in 1987, described the booth “as a solo presentation with a little extra.” A monographic selection of works by California-born, New York-based Nicole Wittenberg revealed landscapes from pastel studies created en plein air and then developed on canvas, selling for €12,000 apiece; six works sold within hours of the preview day. A separate corner was dedicated to all-female artists, including Andra Ursuta, Paloma Varga Weisz and Giulia Censi; a bronze sculpture by Alicja Kwade and an oil on linen by Austyn Weiner from this section were sold. “We are a big Milanese gallery, so for us it’s supporting the city,” Barbieri said of the gallery’s participation. Beyond the confines of the fair itself, Barbieri expressed enthusiasm about the growing number of  private foundations and institutions taking root in Milan, noting that, in the city, “the vibe is good.”

Soft Opening from London presented six artists, including an amusing set of text paintings by Dean Sameshima (one read “Anonymous Straight Guy”) as well as works by Gina Fischli, Olivia Erlanger and Ebun Sodipo, the latter making her Italian exhibition debut. All the works were priced under €50,000. Gallery director Antonia Marsh had never attended miart before, but had been a guest through Conceptual Fine Arts’ one-month gallery visiting program in the city. She also reasoned that “Italy has a really long history of collecting.”

Tucked into a back corner, Milanese gallery Secci presented a solo, site-specific installation with a mirrored floor and plexiglass domes by Alfredo Pirri. Secci’s Senior Director Sara Cirillo was underwhelmed by the new three-level setup of the fair because “people don’t know the path they’re following.” Pirri’s framed watercolors (€32,000 each) were part of the gallery’s private collection and offered for sale for the first time. However, the plexiglass domes did not have a firm price because Pirri wanted to speak to collectors directly “to understand” their desires. Although there had been interest, most collectors were not keen on negotiating this way. Despite this tricky position of selling work on the booth, Cirillo described the wider Milanese art scene as “propre vero,” or undeniable.

On the upper floor, the Established Anthology section brought together 20 international players, including Ben Brown Fine Arts, Galleria Continua, Peter Kilchmann, Galerie Lelong, Galleria Lia Rumma, Richard Saltoun and Tornabuoni Arte. Here, the conference center walls were painted white and the space was much airier. Cardi Gallery Manager Chiara Adducchio felt miart’s upper-floor position made it easier—relative to the setup from previous editions—to talk to collectors. Cardi’s booth drew from the full breadth of its Italian roster, including historic figures like Jannis Kounellis, Enrico Castellani, Agostino Bonalumi, plus living artists at various stages of their careers. The highest-priced work on the booth was €490,000; the most accessible was at €30,000. Gianpietro Carlesso’s sculpture was the sole sale on the preview day. 

Although the fair provided a frenzy of activity on its own merit, between the introduction of Paris Internationale Milan across town and Salone del Mobile on the immediate horizon, Adducchio noted: “everyone was freaking out about FOMO.” It’s not art week without it.