miart 2025 Strengthens Milan’s Rising Art Capital Status

Collaboration is the theme of miart 2025. Taking place from April 4th through 6th, with the VIP preview held on April 3rd at the Allianz MiCo, the fair is now in its 29th edition and brings together 179 galleries from 31 countries and five continents. This year’s fair also comes at a time when the city is looking to make a fresh impact on the international art scene, placing a renewed focus on reestablishing itself as a global city for contemporary art and design.

Nicola Ricciardi, the fair’s director, views the fair as an essential part of Milan’s evolving artistic landscape. “A key goal for us is to position miart not just as a fair, but as a central force in Milan’s cultural landscape,” she told Artsy. “We work closely with all major institutions in Milan to ensure that miart extends beyond the fair itself.”

Milano Art Week—which happens concurrently—is a testament to this. Every night, the city’s leading institutions are hosting major openings. These include a solo exhibition of paintings by Belgian artist Thierry De Cordier at Fondazione Prada, Ugo Rondinone at GAM Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Nico Vascellari at Palazzo Reale, and Robert Rauschenberg at Museo del Novecento. “The city is buzzing with artistic activity, and these galleries want to be part of that energy, ” Ricciardi added.

This year, the fair’s ethos is inspired by the 100th anniversary of Rauschenberg’s birth and the artist’s collaborative way of working, which is reflected both conceptually and structurally in miart 2025. It is further reinforced by the fair’s title, “among friends”—borrowed from the last museum retrospective dedicated to the artist, which was held at MoMA in 2017.

“We wanted to bring Rauschenberg’s work back to Italy, where his work hadn’t been shown in over 24 years,” Ricciardi explained, emphasizing the importance of partnerships in bolstering Milan’s status as a major art capital.

Galleries are flocking to the city, too. Sadie Coles HQ returns to the fair after a 10-year hiatus, and other major galleries, including Victoria Miro and Esther Schipper, are showing for the first time.

Throughout the fair, there are collaborative booths, including shared booths from Sadie Coles HQ and Sprovieri; NıCOLETTı and Tina; and Arcadia Missa and Misako & Rosen. The fair’s Portal Section is also inspired by Rauschenberg’s collaborative ethos, which the section’s curator, Alessio Antoniolli (director of Triangle Network in London, curator at Fondazione Memmo in Rome, and former director of Gasworks in London), describes as “bringing together ideas, emotions, and solutions all at once.”

This spirit of collaboration is evident in this section, with international artists from Ghana, Peru, Colombia, Paris, Berlin, and beyond, bringing their diverse perspectives to explore common global urgencies. “It’s about creating spaces where different ideas not only exist alongside each other but also find points of connection,” Antoniolli told Artsy.

Across the fair’s main section, booths cut across a range of modern and contemporary art, with highlights aplenty. Milan and London’s Cardi Gallery presents stone face sculptures by Ugo Rondinone, while Milan and London’s Wizard Gallery offers standout, frosted-glass paintings by Diango Hernández. Genova and Milan gallery ABC-ARTE is showing works by artists including Arnaldo Pomodoro, Nanni Valentini, and Chiara Crepaldi; Florence and Milan’s Galleria Poggiali showcases a freestanding, folded paper marble plane sculpture by Fabio Viale. Also notable is the Milan and Naples gallery Lia Rumma’s presentation of a range of pieces from artists including Marina Abramović, William Kentridge, and Joseph Kosuth, as well as works from Italian artist Gian Maria Tosatti’s “Fireworks” series, which draws from the Arte Povera movement through the use of rust on galvanized, metal sheet wall works.

Elsewhere, the Emergent section, curated by Attilia Fattori Franchini, highlights younger artists and galleries. Here, a strong contingent of presentations from U.K. galleries is featured, including artworks by Oscar Enberg and Brianna Leatherbury at London’s Brunette Coleman, Jack O’Brien’s work at London’s Ginny on Frederick, and Edward Kay’s series of 10 tempera and oil paintings of apples at Margate’s Roland Ross. Also present are lightboxes by Eva Gold, which glow next to Tasneem Sarkez’s paintings at London’s Rose Easton, and Nate Boyce’s abstract paintings at London’s Ilenia. Italian galleries also offer standout presentations, including Milan and Naples’s Zaza, showcasing a water fountain by Gina Fischli, and Milan’s MATTA, which presents luminous sculptures by The Back Studio. These galleries reflect a younger, experimental approach to contemporary art that complements Milan’s more traditional approach.

As the city also prepares for the Salone del Mobile design week, opening on April 7th, the synergy between art and design is more palpable than ever. The growing energy between the two is reshaping the Milan art scene, and the galleries participating in miart have taken notice.

Milan’s collector demographic is also diversifying, Ricciardi explains. “I keep meeting new people, collectors from the U.K., L.A., and northern Europe, who are moving to Milan to take advantage of these incentives. They’re discovering a city that’s not only more affordable than major capitals like London, but also incredibly dynamic. The food, the culture, the lifestyle—it all adds to Milan’s appeal.”

Ricciardi noted that, as more people relocate, the expatriate community is growing. Its high-net-worth collector base is growing in tandem, partly thanks to its attractive tax regime. Major galleries are also following suit, like Thaddaeus Ropac, which is preparing to open a new gallery in the city, and Ben Brown Fine Arts, which is looking to expand its presence.

This is a view shared by Massimo de Carlo, whose Milan-founded gallery is among the most significant returnees to the fair. For de Carlo, the city’s allure extends beyond the art world: “Milan is an incredibly attractive city—not just for art but for its entire lifestyle,” he said. “Even before the galleries, the city has been drawing people from London, Paris, and Belgium. That influx is helping to create a new artistic ecosystem.” He noted that the city’s cultural institutions, foundations, and overall way of life contribute to this exciting shift.

Still, the fair remains a focal point for Italian collectors. “We anticipate that most visitors here will be from Italy,” shared a representative from Victoria Miro. “There’s a growing trend worldwide where collectors are attending regional fairs rather than travelling as much internationally for art fairs. Milan, as Italy’s financial and economic capital, is a strategic place for us to be.”