Miart: new venue disappoints, wait on new director

The city of Milan switched seamlessly from art week to design week, with thousands of events overlapping. More than 500 those of the Milano Art Week, which saw for the first time the parallel presence of three art fairs. At Miart, which this year celebrated its 30th edition - the last one under the leadership of Nicola Ricciardi, for whom the totonomi on who will replace him has already begun - the theme of the day was the new location, the South Wing of Allianz MiCO, which was not much appreciated either by collectors or gallery owners.

Although it had its advantages, such as the proximity to the park, the three floors on which the galleries were distributed seemed too different and, above all, too difficult to reach the Established Anthology section, for which the galleries complained (although, once reached, the atmosphere was pleasant). There was also breath in the Emerging Galleries section, which this year welcomed a few more operators (29, compared to last year's 25), including Satine, a brand new Venetian gallery founded by young Camilla Pagliano and Silvia Cipriani, which presented works in glass and metal by Valentina Cameranesi Sgroi (prices from 1.200 and EUR 5,500), taking the opportunity to make themselves known and meet new collectors and curators. On the lower floor, on the other hand, there was less space for galleries, which for this reason (but also due to some voluntary defections of some Milanese galleries, such as Raffaella Cortese, Matthew Noble and Una) decreased in terms of numbers: 160 galleries from 24 countries, compared to 179 from 31 countries last year; approximately 1,200 works were on display.

The comparison with Paris Internationale - another topic of conversation on everyone's lips - also weighed in, which convinced with its innovative international proposal in an exceptional location, Palazzo Galbani, a modernist building under renovation. The third fair, Mega, still running until 25 April (while Paris Internationale closed on 21 and Miart on 19 April), also found a beautiful venue, in a former perfume factory, appreciated for its post-industrial charm, albeit off the beaten track. Galleries such as Copperfield and NP Art Lab recorded satisfactory sales there.

Lo stand di Mai36 a Miart 2026 con un dialogo tra Jacopo Benassi e Robert Mapplethorpe.

The energy, however, was there. The city welcomed numerous collectors from all parts of Italia and there were some sales, already in the first few moments of opening to VIPs, but mostly in a low price range. For example, Pantaleone in the first few hours sold works by Concetta Modica and Maia Regis under EUR 10,000. Over the course of the four days, Minini sold works by Phoebe Collings-James, Jacopo Benassi, Roberto de Pinto, Paul P and Flavio Favelli in a price range between 10,000 and 25,000 euros. Kaufmann Repetto sold a sign by Lily van der Stokker, paintings by Katherine Bradford, a tapestry by Pae White, a painting by Adrian Paci and a work by Vivian Suter at prices between 20,000 and 80,000.

P420 finalised many sales for almost all the artists on the stand: sold out for Xian Kim (who will present his first solo exhibition in the gallery in June, price range between 7-20 thousand euros),Khaled Jarada (price range between 1-6 thousand euros) and Shafei Xia (range between 5-30 thousand euros). Excellent sales also for Alessandro Pessoli (range between €8-40,000), Adelaide Cioni, Helene Appel (range between €7-15,000), Franco Vaccari (price range between €5-€25,000) currently starring in a retrospective at Bolzano's Museion, Merlin James (range between 10-20 thousand euros), whose second solo exhibition at P420 opened last week, and Alessandra Spranzi (range 4-10 thousand euros). Great interest and negotiations are also being confirmed for Riccardo Baruzzi, Pieter Vermeersch, Paolo Icaro, Irma Blank, Francis Offman and June Crespo (her solo exhibition at the Fondazione Sandretto in Turin).