18 April, 2023
Miart, the international modern and contemporary art fair taking place in Milan, has just come to the end.
After having ‘Dismantled silence’ in 2021 and starting the ‘first movement’ of a possible new symphony in 2022, the 2023 edition has been titled Crescendo, continuing the vein of musical metaphors shaping the visual identity of the fair directed by Nicola Ricciardi: “In technical language, the term refers to a dynamic musical indication involving the gradual increase in the intensity of sound in a composition; but in this context it also refers to the growth – in terms of quality, participation, audience - seen between the previous two editions and, above all, to the desire to continue this ascending trajectory in 2023”. And this “crescendo” has been confirmed by facts: the number of participating galleries increased (from 151 of the previous year to 169) and, more interestingly, the international exhibitor roster grew by 40% and prizes and acquisitions doubled.
Participating galleries have been divided into three sections, namely Established, Decades and Emergent.
Diego Miguel Mirabella at Studio Sales
Established is the main section of the fair and hosts galleries which present contemporary art as well as masters of modern art. The galleries belonging to the section exhibited a wide heterogeneity of artists and media. Among the contemporary art most forceful pieces we recall also artists involved in our previous exhibition projects such as Diego Miguel Mirabella (Studio Sales) and Flavio Favelli (Galleria Massimo Minini & Francesca Minini). Also, among the sculptural works, Figura con stella by Mimmo Paladino (Cortesi Gallery), which was exhibited from September 2022 to March 2023 at the Rolling Dice exhibition we curated at Withers Milano, impressively stood out among the booths.
Mimmo Paladino at Cortesi Gallery
Focusing on modern art instead, we noticed the significant presence of Alighiero Boetti’s work, demonstrating the growing interest of the market in the artist (multiple booths, including Tornabuoni Arte and Matteo Lampertico Fine Art).
Alighiero Boetti at Lampertico Fine Art
Among the most memorable booths we recall Pantaleone Gallery, which provided a kind of wunderkammern immersive exhibition, Ribot, with a nicely presented selection of works by Benedicte Peyrat and Andrei Pokrovski and Corvi Mora, with a stunning show of artists Dee Ferris and John Lindell.
Pantaleone Gallery booth
The section Decades, curated by Alberto Salvadori, explores instead the history of the 20th century, divided by decades: each of the nine booths belonging to the section, through a monographic or thematic exhibition, presents a key moment of the period in question, in a succession of projects dating from the 1910s to the 2000s. Particularly powerful in the section was the proposal of ED Gallery for the 1920s, with an exhibition between art and design dedicated to masters Gio Ponti and Richard Ginori and the Ugo Mulas solo show proposed by Lia Rumma Gallery for the 70s.
Ugo Mulas at Lia Rumma
Lastly, the Emergent section, curated by Attilia Fattori Franchini, featured 27 international galleries whose program focuses on the artists’ latest generations. Among the most powerful booths we highlight Una Galleria’s, which proposed a curated booth dedicated to the use of word as a medium through Stefano Calligaro’s, Joseph Maunou’s and Italo Zuffi’s work and the London based South Parade gallery, with a mix of paintings and playful sculptures made by emerging artists Ellie Pratt and Guendalina Cerruti.
South Parade Gallery booth
The fair convinced and confirmed its Crescendo, not only in the number of galleries and international prominence, but also in the quality of its proposal and artistic direction, allowing miart to be recognised as the “exhibition that presents the widest chronological offer in Italy, offering a wide audience of collectors the opportunity to discover masterpieces from the early twentieth century to the creations of the latest generations” (source: https://www.miart.it/en/).