Contribution

PROVENCE

A fair is a fair is a fair

Lutz Bacher at Galerie Buchholz. Photo: PROVENCE.

Milano! Highlights in the main section of Miart last week were more or less the same list of galleries as at other fairs: the always well-executed gallery program potpourri at Galerie Buchholz, the ever-minimalist presentations at Maxwell Graham (this time featuring Hamishi Farah, Jos de Gruyter & Harald Thys, as well as SoiL Thornton), for example.

SoiL Thornton at Maxwell Graham Gallery. Photo: PROVENCE.

Honorable mentions go to the joint booth of Arcadia Missa and Misako & Rosen, featuring Reina Sugihara; to Felix Gaudlitz’s tasteful selection, including Tanja Widmann; to Thomas Brambilla for the John Giornos; and to Galleria Barbati for the massive Buck Ellison diptych they brought. One of the gallerists from the main section – not one of those I mentioned before – told me that they had “a slow start,” which is gallerist-speak for zero sales, I think. 

Side note: what would an art fair be without Raf Simons showing up? He was there.

Tanja Widmann at Felix Gaudlitz. Photo: PROVENCE.

John Giorno at Thomas Brambilla. Photo: PROVENCE.

Buck Ellison at Barbati Gallery. Photo: PROVENCE.

Business seemed to be better in the fair’s emergent section, which naturally comes with a more budget-friendly price range and is apparently less affected by the art market’s decline. Local gallery Zaza' showed the best Gina Fischli work I’ve ever seen (a fountain flooding the booth). Geneva-based Lovay Fine Arts presented work by jeweler-turned-artist Ligia Dias. I also liked Siyi Li’s massive snowflake and the accompanying paintings presented by Cibriàn in a joint booth with diez. The PROVENCE award for the most iconic young gallerist goes, as always, to City Galerie Wien’s Antonia Lia Orsi. The fair’s award for the best presentation in this section went to galleries Shahin Zarinbal and Matteo Cantarella for their joint booth showing works by Sanna Helena Berger and Cecilie Norgaard – well deserved.

Gina Fischli at Zazà. Photo: PROVENCE.

Gallerist Balthazar Lovay (Lovay Fine Arts), in front of a work by Ligia Dias. Photo: PROVENCE.

Gallerist Antonia Lia Orsi (City Galerie Wien) in front of works by Virginia Ariu and Olivia Coeln. Photo: PROVENCE.

A fair week is a fair week is a fair week. Like every major art fair, Miart came with an abundance of openings, high-profile institutional shows and side fairs all over town. The week started off with two bangers on the other side of town. 

Susanne Pfeffer’s take on 20th-century German photography at Fondazione Prada. I really enjoyed this presentation, titled Typologien (all the canonical classics in one show, with a very smart display solution (floating walls)—insane production budget, for sure!). Others didn’t like it so much: “It feels like ChatGPT curated it.” It was definitely interesting how little of a topic World War II can be in a show with this focus. Opening snacks were not it: slices of cucumber on toast—Prada's model diet. Yes, Raf Simons was there.

Isa Genzken at Fondazione Prada. Photo: PROVENCE.

Parloir — "a fair" with a Basel Social Club kind of attitude. A bunch of galleries presenting work in an open-plan industrial building. Many friends of PROVENCE took part, among them Galerie Koshbakht, Triangolo, Damien & The Love Guru, and Gauli Zitter. Drinks were served at a bar designed by artist Raque Ford (presented by Good Weather). Everyone’s opening highlight? 15 boxes of Pizza Margherita heroically delivered to Parloir by Triangolo’s Leonardo Caldonazzo, saving a whole crowd from starvation on the outskirts of Milan. 

Artist Francesco de Bernardi (with Hobby) at Parloir. Photo: PROVENCE.

Reuben Beren James and Albert Riera Galceran (émergent magazine) in front of works by John Giorno at Triennale Milano. Photo: PROVENCE.

Other points of attraction during the week were MMXX’s packed opening (a lot of indoor smoking and prosecco), hosted by Daniele Milvio and Emanuele Marcuccio; the even more packed opening of Marcuccio’s show in Zaza’s gallery space; and the opening at Zero… featuring, among others, Ghislaine Leung, Nat Faulkner, Lydia Ourahmane, and Yvo Cho. I also enjoyed the John Giorno display (not really a full show, unfortunately) at Triennale Milano. 

On the train back to ________, I realized that I didn’t make it to Nick Mauss’ exhibition at Emanuela Campoli—and that I probably missed a few other interesting things as well. Whatever. See you in Basel.