‘Ideas Are Not Real Estate’: Miart to Return ‘Among Friends’ This April
The Italian fair is doubling down on its collaborative approach in its 29th edition with 179 galleries on board. Save to My Ocula
Nearly 200 galleries will contribute to this year’s edition of Milanese art fair Miart, with a focus on a new generation of gallerists and a special honour for American painter Robert Rauschenberg.
Milan‘s leading art fair will take place later this month at Allianz MiCo, Europe’s largest convention centre, where a special exhibition will honour Rauschenberg on the centenary of his birth.
Museum exhibitions, talks, and projects will explore his commitment to the exchange of ideas, or as the abstract painter himself put it: ‘My whole area of art has always been addressed to working with other people. Ideas are not real estate.’
Along with a slew of visual artists, Rauschenberg worked with radical thinkers and creatives, including dancer Merce Cunningham, composer John Cage, research scientists, and even NASA–on the occasion of the Apollo 11 moon landing.
After visiting China in 1982, he notably organised the Rauschenberg Overseas Cultural Initiative, a travelling exhibition that visited communist, totalitarian, or developing nations to promote mutual understanding.
A retrospective centering his lifetime of collaboration was held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 2017, after which this edition of the Milan fair is named.
Titled Among Friends, this year’s edition of Miart will celebrate art world relationships with talks scheduled during the fair and events trickling into the city between 4 and 6 April, sparking further partnerships at a time the global market feels like it needs it most.
Miart Artistic Director Nicola Ricciardi told Ocula that Italy’s contemporary art market is also facing its own challenges, including ‘the need for greater international support and stronger connections with the global art scene’.
‘Fairs like Miart are playing a pivotal role in addressing these challenges by creating platforms that elevate Italian artists while attracting international galleries and collectors,’ he said.
Established first-time exhibitors like Esther Schipper (Berlin/Paris/Seoul), London‘s Sadie Coles HQ, and Ben Brown Fine Arts (London/New York/Hong Kong), will feature in the main sector, counting 144 galleries, alongside Milanese mainstays like MASSIMODECARLO and kaufmann repetto, and returning galleries like Victoria Miro (London/Venice) and Galleria Continua.
Ricciardi said while a ‘significant portion’ of collectors hail from Milan and Italy, the fair has seen recent increases in international attendance.
Collector preferences are also evolving. Ricciardi noted growing interest in mediums beyond painting, including sculpture, installation, and digital art.
‘Our visitors are increasingly open to exploring less traditional routes,’ he said.
Miart aims to nurture this trend with a ten-gallery experimental section, titled Portal, curated by Alessio Antoniolli, where exhibitors like Galleria Franco Noero (Turin), P420 (Bologna), and Klemm’s (Berlin) will offer ‘a window to the present, through parallel dimensions and unconventional prisms’.
Also dedicated to the experimental, the Emerging sector will showcase ‘some of the most stimulating contemporary practices’ by 25 galleries.
Led by curator Attilia Fattori Franchini, highlights include Jack O’Brien’s sculptures at Ginny on Frederick (London), Jennifer Carvalho’s review of Renaissance painting at Franz Kaka (Toronto), and a fountain by Gina Fischli at zaza’ (Milan).
And outside the fair, visitors will be able to explore many institutional shows across the city ahead of Milan’s world-renowned design fair Salone Del Mobile (8–13 April 2025).
Swiss-born artist Ugo Rondinone, whose work at Miart is presented with Milan gallery Cardi, will open an exhibition at Modern Art Gallery of Milan (2 April–6 July 2025) exploring his Italian roots. Meanwhile, Milan-based Albanian artist Adrian Paci‘s work is on view with kaufman repetto at the fair and Museum of Culture (Mudec) until 21 September 2025. Other highlights include Yukinori Yanagi at Pirelli HangarBicocca (until 27 July), Shirin Neshat‘s major exhibition of 200 photographs and films at Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea (until 8 June), and a celebration of Rauschenberg at Museo del Novecento (5 April–29 June 2025). —[O]
Main image: Exhibition view: Miart 2024, Milan (12–14 April 2024). Courtesy Miart.
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