Artissima Fair Focuses On Emerging Talent And Discovery

(MENAFN- USA Art News) The 33rd edition of Artissima, Turin's publicly owned contemporary art fair, took place from October 30 to November 1 at the Oval Lingotto arena, adjacent to the Pinacoteca Agnelli. Exclusively dedicated to contemporary art in Italy, the fair featured 183 galleries from 35 countries, organized into four committee-selected sections and three curated sub-sections. Despite being color-coded, all sections were integrated on the exhibition floor.

Fair director Luigi Fassi, inspired by American philosopher Martha Nussbaum, described art as a“flexible, acrobatic body, capable of moving beyond our own perspective and approaching the experience of others.” Fassi added,“At a time when our societies seem increasingly divided in the midst of trembling times, I find this idea especially meaningful.” He informed Observer that his goal over the past five years has been“to strengthen Artissima as a place where collectors can discover the unexpected, encountering galleries and artists they don't know yet, as well-travelled and informed as they can be.”

Italian collector Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, a long-time attendee since Artissima's inception, affirmed the fair's strength in facilitating discovery. She visits multiple times, preferring Sundays after other collectors have departed, and ensures she sees every gallery, beginning with the New Entries section. Sandretto Re Rebaudengo contrasted Artissima with larger fairs, telling Observer,“Obviously when you go to Art Basel, every Art Basel, you know there's Gagosian, Hauser & Wirth, David Zwirner, you don't have any of these in Torino. You have many new proposals, many galleries to discover. So I go with this idea of 'I want to discover,' to know more about what the new generation are doing.” She emphasized her focus on emerging artists:“When I started collecting, I started collecting my generation. Then I started to collect my son's generation. And now younger, my sons are around 40! We pay attention to artists who are 25, 27.” For her, the fair is not solely about purchasing, but about“starting a relationship to have with a new generation,” which can lead to future exhibitions, as happened with artist Aziza Kadyri, whose work“Choreography of the Latent” is currently on view at Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo.

The fair showcased numerous emerging galleries and artists. Studio SALES di Norberto Ruggeri, which primarily exhibits at Italian fairs, presented a solo booth by Bologna-based artist Flavio Favelli. His series of 55 drawings, priced at €3,000 each or €70,000 for the full set, were created on found office and hotel letterhead, overlaid with logos and currency, and displayed in found frames. Gallery representative Rebecca Bevilacqua observed,“There's a lot of influence of Italian and American Pop Art, to talk about images of capitalism.” Flavelli also has an installation in Turin's Luci d'Artista, utilizing manufacturing materials from Piemonte and Emilia-Romagna.

MATTA gallery, transitioning from the New Entries to the main section this year, emphasized Artissima's appeal due to the participation of“the whole system of the art world,” including the public, curators, and institutions, according to Caterina Migliore. The gallery's group show featured Danish-born, London-based artist Clara Hastrup, whose work is currently on view at MATTA's Milan space and is scheduled for exhibition at Tate Britain in December. Hastrup's piece, Tidal Range, involves liquids in five vessels, including a French press and a Disaronno amaretto bottle, controlled via Wi-Fi and synchronized with an Italian live-streaming data center measuring Venice's water levels. Migliore described the work, priced at €34,000 for all five vessels or €6,800 each, as“a game of illusion, this is what I love about this work. It's dramatic, it's like messinscena.” The most affordable work at the booth, priced at €1,100, was by multimedia artist Francesco Tozini, featuring digital images of flowers on a miniature screen. An Assemblage by thebackstudio, a duo from Turin and Mumbai, sold for €8,800.

Hannah Barry Gallery dedicated its booth to C. Mae Bloom, an artist who completed her MA two years ago and had her first London show in 2025. Director Diana Córdoba stated the gallery, which previously participated in Artissima years ago, had“a break from doing art fairs.” The significant presence of institutional figures at Artissima motivated the gallery to showcase Bloom's work. Her site-specific installation, Time as Exchange, priced at €17,500 for the full installation of 153 small objects, explores labor and objecthood, honoring three generations of textile-working matriarchs in her family. Smaller handmade sculptures by Bloom, using vintage tickets and factory measuring units, ranged from €1,000 to €1,500.

More established galleries also participated. Galleria Lia Rumma featured artists such as Marina Abramović, Vanessa Beecroft, and Alfredo Jaar. Gallery representative Lidia Rebuffat noted,“We have a lot of collectors from Torino, so it's a good occasion to meet and link up and be all together. It's not the best time for art fairs in general all over the world, but we still invest in Italian fairs.” Prices at their booth ranged from €5,000 for a work by Michele Guido to €200,000 for a wood-and-glass vitrine by Wael Shawky. At P420, another Italian gallery, Pieter Vermeersch's oil on canvas Untitled (2025) was the most expensive piece, while a recent art school graduate's work was the most accessible. Works by Merlin James, Steven Rosenthal, and Francis Offman had already sold by the fair's second day.

Beyond the fairgrounds, Sandretto Re Rebaudengo highlighted Turin's broader cultural offerings, including public and private institutions like GAM, Castello di Rivoli, and Fondazione Merz. The latter three collaborated on a tribute to Italian artist Marisa Merz, the sole woman associated with the Arte Povera movement of the 1960s. Fassi reiterated,“Artissima's international identity is inseparable from Turin,” viewing the fair as“a meeting point between this local cultural ecosystem and the international art world, a statement about contemporary culture, a driver of the cultural life of its city.”

Source: Observer Arts

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