Excellent sales, increase in the presence of national and international collectors, influx of journalists and sector operators, thousands of visits by the public and enthusiasts: this is the extreme synthesis of the success of miart 2023.

Yesterday - 16 April 2023 - the 27th edition of miart - the international modern and contemporary art fair in Milan - organized by Fiera Milano and directed for the third year by Nicola Ricciardi ended.

The red thread of this edition was Growing up: term which in musical language indicates the gradual increase in intensity of the sound. And the title has not betrayed expectations: miart has given a progressive growth of participation and audience.

From the first opening hours - Thursday 13 April 2023 - and for the entire duration, the event recorded great vivacity, experiencing an increase in the presence of international VIPs including collectors, art consultants, curators and directors of private foundations and Italian museums and foreigners, the growth in the participation of the Italian and international press and a consequent capillary media coverage, a considerable increase in the public and art enthusiasts.

The great quality of miart 2023

Very high level for the 169 participating galleries and for the significant increase in the international reach of the event which saw the number of exhibitors based abroad increase by 40%, with a total of origins from 27 countries worldwide. Appreciation also for the decision to keep the three sections – Established, Decades, and Emergent – ​​in order to present a clear and legible distribution of spaces.

The 2023 edition stood out for the quality of the works on display, for the careful curatorial research, for the museum-level exhibition projects but above all for the fair's ability to go beyond traditional boundaries, creating unprecedented collaborations and encouraging the relationship and exchange with the city, its institutions and its citizens.

Inspired by the concept of Growing up, the contents of the fair for the first time have come out like roots from their pot to be grafted into other places in the city.

In fact, on Saturday 15 April, Triennale Milano welcomed, with great participation, miart LIVE at Triennale Milano: a series of meetings born from the collaboration between miart and the Milanese institution which saw the participation of great names from the world of culture such as Massimiliano Gioni and Beatrice Trussardi , Jonathan Monk and Angharad Williams, Gianni Pettena and Italo Rota and which have developed around the theme of the ability of art to grip other places and disciplines far from traditional containers. The collaboration between the two institutions was also underlined by a new edition of FOG – Triennale Milano Performig Arts, which during the days of the fair presented the Italian premieres of Jeremy Nedd and Impilo Mapantsula (April 12-13) and Dewey Dell (April 15-16 April).

For the 2023 edition of miart, the prizes and commissions aimed at supporting the commitment and vision of the galleries and artists who participate in the fair also increased. Each of these awards underlines how active each of the Partners is in supporting art and culture. A prestigious list of renowned curators and museum directors with international profiles went to compose the juries called to decide the prize winners.

There are 9 works selected by the Acquisition Fund of the Fiera Milano Foundation, to assist in the selection the President of the Enrico Pazzali Foundation, the jury composed of Diana Bracco (President of the jury, Member of the Executive Committee of the Fiera Milano Foundation, Milan), Ralph Rugoff, (Director, Hayward Gallery at Southbank Centre, London), Dirk Snauwaert (Director, WIELS, Brussels) and Bettina Steinbrügge (General Manager, Mudam Luxembour).

“Fondazione Fiera Milano, on the occasion of an unmissable event for enthusiasts and collectors such as miart, the international modern and contemporary art fair in Milan, is proud to be able to renew its support for culture and the art market in a concrete. The works purchased this year through the Acquisition Fund, in addition to their aesthetic qualities, have great cultural value - explains Diana Bracco, member of the Executive Committee of the Fiera Milano Foundation and President of the international jury which selected the works that will enrich the collection of the Foundation -. With an overall contribution that exceeded 100.000 Euros, the works chosen by the jury that I had the pleasure of presiding over range from painting to photography and from sculpture to printing and belong to artists of different generations represented by Italian and foreign galleries".

The works, which will add to the over 100 that currently make up the Fondazione Fiera Milano collection housed in the Palazzina degli Orafi headquarters and can be consulted here, I'm:

  • Razvan Anton, Fading Study (Tarnita Water Dam), 2022 (GAEP, Bucharest);
  • Javier Barrios, Pravada, 2023 (CLEARING, New York – Brussels – Beverly Hills);
  • Elizabeth Benassi, Ceneri di Gramsci, 2022 (Warehouse, Rome);
  • Pierpaolo Campanini, didgeridoo, 2023 (kaufmann repetto, Milan);
  • Wendt Eyckermans, A study in colour, minerals and composition (after Peter Paul Rubens 'Saint Franciscus of Assisi receiving the stigmata'), 2022 (Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York);
  • Soshiro Matsubara, Untitled, 2022 (Martina Simeti, Milan);
  • Daniel Steegmann Mangrané, Hologram (Cork Monster), 2021 (Esther Schipper, Berlin – Paris – Seoul);
  • Nora Turato, how can i help? what's your job?, 2022 (Galerie Gregor Staiger, Zurich – Milan);
  • Tobias Zielony, Maria, 2016-2017 (LIA RUMMA, Milan - Naples).

And another eight are the prizes and commissions assigned for miart 2023: the Herno Prize went to the stand shared by the ERMES ERMES (Rome) and LC Queisser (Tbilisi) galleries in the Established section; the LCA Award for Emergent was assigned to HOA Galeria (São Paulo); the Covivio Prize was awarded to the artist Lorenza Longhi (1991, Lecco, Italy) brought to miart by the Fanta-MLN gallery (Milan) in the Emergent section; the first edition of the Fondazione Henraux Sculpture Commission was entrusted to Haris Epaminonda (1980, Nicosia, Cyprus) on the stand of Galleria Massimo Minini (Brescia) in the Established section; the first edition of the Orbital Cultura Award - Nexi Group selects Francesco Jodice (1967, Naples, Italy) at miart with Galleria Umberto Di Marino (Naples) in the Established section; the Matteo Visconti di Modrone Prize went to June Crespo (1982, Pamplona, ​​Spain) at miart with the P420 (Bologna) and Ehrhardt Flórez (Madrid) galleries in the Established section; the Rotary Club Milano Brera Award for Contemporary Art and Young Artists saw the acquisition of a work by Binta Diaw (1995, Milan, Italy) at miart with the PROMETEO GALLERY Ida Pisani gallery (Milan – Lucca) in the Established section ; the Massimo Giorgetti Award has chosen Jenna Bliss (1984, Yonkers, New York) at miart with the FELIX GAUDLITZ gallery (Vienna) in the Emergent section.

In a climate of great ferment and in the satisfied impressions of the exhibitors, the Milan Art Week developed by miart in collaboration with the Department of Culture of the Municipality of Milan also played a central role and saw the main public institutions and private foundations of the city inaugurate the main exhibitions of the season right on the days of the fair.

The 28th edition of miart is scheduled from 12 to 14 April 2024 – with a reserved preview on Thursday 11 April 2024 – again under the direction of Nicola Ricciardi.

All updates will be available online on the site www.miart.it