miart 2026: New Directions

In 2026, miart celebrates its thirtieth edition and does so by choosing to change pace. From April 17 to 19, the international modern and contemporary art fair of Milan returns with a project that looks at its own history while opening up to new directions, starting with its title: New Directions. A clear reference to jazz - and in particular to the album of the same name by John Coltrane - which becomes a curatorial metaphor for an approach based on listening, dialogue and transformation. Under the artistic direction of Nicola Ricciardi, miart 2026 presents itself as a fair that does not give up its identity, but reinterprets it in a dynamic way, making improvisation and the relationship between different languages a guiding principle for both the content and the public experience.


Nicola Ricciardi © Niccolò Campita

This change of pace is also marked by the new venue: the South Wing of Allianz MiCo, overlooking the CityLife area. A more compact space, arranged over three levels, conceived as an “open score” in which exhibition projects can dialogue in a more direct and fluid way. This choice is not only logistical, but also symbolic, supporting the idea of a fair able to move between memory and future, between consolidation and experimentation. There will be 160 participating galleries from 24 countries, invited to tell more than a century of art history, from the masters of the early and mid-twentieth century to the most contemporary research, confirming miart’s role as a platform where modern and contemporary art coexist without rigid hierarchies.

The 2026 edition is structured around three sections that share a common rhythm. Established, with 111 galleries, represents the core of the fair and brings together well-established realities capable of spanning different periods of art history, with openings also to collectible design. Established Anthology, a meta-section involving 20 galleries, presents exhibition projects conceived as reflections on time, bringing historical works and contemporary practices into dialogue and addressing the complexity of the present. Emergent, curated by Attilia Fattori Franchini, expands the focus on younger and more experimental research, with 29 galleries investing in new generations of artists, many of them participating in miart for the first time.
 

Among the highlights of this edition is Movements, a special project dedicated to the moving image and developed in collaboration with the St. Moritz Art Film Festival. The project brings to the fair a reflection on film and artists’ video as a rhythmic experience, based on resonance and vibration, further strengthening the connection with the musical language evoked by the curatorial theme. Alongside the exhibition content, miart confirms a structured network of partnerships, awards and acquisitions - from the support of Intesa Sanpaolo to the Acquisition Fund of Fondazione Fiera Milano - reaffirming the fair’s role as a meeting point between the market, institutions and research.

As part of the Milan Art Week calendar, miart 2026 presents itself as a fair that listens and creates connections, capable of embracing the complexity of the contemporary art system without locking itself into a single model. New Directions thus becomes not only a title, but an invitation: to be open to different languages, to recognize the value of dialogue, and to take part in an experience that, like jazz, lives in the balance between structure and freedom.