For your time in Milan during Salone del Mobile.Milano and miart, Whitewaller has put together the ultimate to-do list with all of our top fairs, exhibitions, shopping spots, and more.
FAIRS
1. miart
April 5—7
“Hold everything dear” is the central mantra of miart 2019. With a roster of artists and exhibitors that are temporally, geographically, and thematically distinct, miart embraces “everything” to welcome 185 galleries from 19 countries. Featured among them will be emerging and established artists, Old Masters, experimental designers, and modern masters. The calendar also boasts a full schedule of minitalks with In Between Art Film (a series of conversations involving creators, makers, directors, and thinkers revolving around “The Common Good”) miarteducational (a free guided tour service), and the awarding of the Fondazione Fiera Milano acquisition fund, and various other prizes.
Exhibitors will include familiar favorites such as Cardi (Milan, London), Casoli De Luca (Rome), Cortesi (Lugano, London, Milan), Galleria dello Scudo (Verona), Gregor Podnar (Berlin), Galleria Continua (San Gimignano, Beijing, Les Moulins, Havana), Mazzoleni (London, Turin), Montrasio Arte (Monza, Milan), and Repetto Gallery (London), as well as new faces such as Cabinet (London), Corvi-Mora (London), Marian Goodman Gallery (New York, Paris, London), Hauser & Wirth (Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, New York, Somerset, St. Moritz, Gstaad, Zürich), Herald St (London), Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac (Paris, London, Salzburg), and Tucci Russo (Torre Pellice).
2. Salone del Mobile.Milano
April 9—14
Launched in 1961 in Milan, Salone del Mobile.Milano is more than a trade fair; it’s a marketplace of innovation, connection, and creation, and an ode to its home city. Salone del Mobile.Milano welcomes more than three hundred seventy thousand creatives, journalists, collectors, intellectuals, designers, and critics from all over the world to embody the ingenuity of Milan.
At the heart of the fair are themes of enterprise, design, quality, networking, ingenuity, and connection, which take form in showcases, sustainable design, exhibitions, installations, and citywide cultural opportunities. Salone del Mobile.Milano, through SaloneSatellite, has been heralded as the launch pad for new talent, encouraging the next generation of designers and creators. With visitors from almost 200 countries, the fair, every year, promises—and delivers—something for everyone, something unexpected, something extraordinary.
SHOWS
3. Dan Flavin at Cardi Gallery
Now—June 28
Presenting 14 light works from the 1960s to the 1990s, “Dan Flavin” at Cardi Gallery Milan will chart decades of color, light, and sculptural exploration by the eponymous American artist. Flavin (1933–1996) worked in his signature, commercial fluorescent light, over time paring down extraneous details to focus solely on the form of light itself. Ranging from lamps to room-sized environments, Flavin’s works challenge the way we perceive architectural space. But as for any transcendent, abstract meaning, Flavin insisted, “It is
what it is and it ain’t nothing else.” The exhibition is organized in partnership with the Estate of Dan Flavin and will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue.
4. Lygia Pape at Fondazione Carriero
Now—July 21
Organized in collaboration with Estate Projeto Lygia Pape, “Lygia Pape” is the first exhibition of the artist’s work to be held in Italy. Among the pioneers of Neoconcretism in Brazil, Lygia Pape worked for 45 years, weaving between media, chameleoning between conceptual frameworks. In drawing, sculpture, video, dance, installation, and photography, Pape synthesized European modernism, Russian Constructivism, and Brazilian culture. The exhibition at Fondazione Carriero explores works from 1952 to 2000 as a natural evolution, highlighting a continuing experimentation of form, origin, nature, and humankind while denuding her audience of expectations of viewership.
5. Ibrahim Mahama at Fondazione Nicola Trussardi
Now—April 14
Confronting contemporary issues of globalization, migration, and borders, Ibrahim Mahama collects the relics of urban environments—jute, wood, textiles—and uses them to transform architectural structures. Jute, in particular, is a central medium of Mahama’s practice. Branded with manufacturers’ logos, jute sacks are symbols of transport and signs of the human labor that created them. For his Milan intervention, Mahama will wrap the tollhouses of Porta Venezia—a historic crossroads—in the material, metamorphosing the structures with new life, in transient devotion to the everyday makers and citizens of Milan.
6. Lizzie Fitch and Ryan Trecartin at Fondazione Prada
Now—August 5
Since meeting at the Rhode Island School of Design, Lizzie Fitch and Ryan Trecartin have collaborated extensively—and globally. Their new commission by Fondazione Prada is a large-scale multimedia installation exploring the speculative nature of manifest destiny-attitudes and the misplaced faith in idealization of “new” territory. Immersing viewers in a soundscape and vision of distorted banality, Fitch and Trecartin create a map haunted by contortions of the familiar. Homesteads, fortifications, and digital arenas will converge to echo and challenge the comfort of escapism. A retrospective book of the artists’ collaboration will accompany the project.
7. Giorgio Andreotta Calò at Pirelli HangarBicocca
Now—July 21
“CITTÀDIMILANO” is a solo show by Giorgio Andreotta Calò, uniting works from the past decades of Calò’s career. Born in Venice, and currently based between Venice and the Netherlands, Calò has developed a unique, self-referential practice steeped in natural, symbolically rich elements and heavily conceptual materials through which he explores themes such as stratification and the passage of time. In “CITTÀDIMILANO,” Calò focuses specifically on sculptural practice, inviting viewers—through the projection of underwater images—to create their own story across a manufactured landscape. Traversing archival footage of a shipwreck, viewers will closely engage with geographic and symbolic questions of depth, dimension, data, and the beyond.
8. Dan Graham at Francesca Minini
Now—May 4
Guiding viewers as actors and observers, Dan Graham’s pavilions confound typical dynamics of time, reflection, and spectatorship. Crafted in glass that is both transparent and reflective, the space plays with perception, allowing participants on one side to see themselves, the structure, and a parallel audience on the other side, as image, subject, response, and public. In a conceptual dialogue—between artist, audience, and object—about perception and interaction, Graham also encourages sheer wonderment and sensitivity. The exhibition will display models and projects, which Graham considers autonomous sculpture.
HOTELS
9. STRAFhotel&bar
This STRAF project, encompassing a stunning hotel and vibrant bar, is an architectural and artistic gem. Chosen for their natural components, the materials making up the hotel (such as burnished brass, oxidized copper, concrete and mirrored walls, and industrial iron panels) evoke sophisticated tastes. Moving away from clichéd hotel concepts, STRAF has personalized the design of the rooms to expand spaces with illusionary perspectives. “I imagine the STRAF hotel as a type of installation; a concept from which I began to extract a multitude of elements associated with contemporary art,” said architect and interior designer Vincenzo De Cotiis.
10. The Bvlgari Hotel Milano
In 2004, this location opened in Brera as the first Bulgari hotel. At the heart of classic and contemporary design, the hotel offers 58 elegant guest rooms and suites, relaxing public spaces, a new spa collection, a restaurant and a private dining room, a lush garden, a cigar room, two boardrooms, and sketches of Bulgari jewelry in each room.
RESTAURANTS & BARS
11. Cova
The historic patisserie owned by LVMH, Cova, is celebrating its 200th anniversary. Complemented by an outside terrace, the establishment welcomes guests inside to explore a selection of products—such as small, handmade patisseries and traditional recipes.
12. Terraza Duomo 21
A true dining destination just steps from Milan’s iconic church, Terrazza Duomo 21 is a premier venue for a one-of-a-kind experience. Offering everything from casual bites to fine dining fare, the stunning restaurant also welcomes guests to expansive multilevel spaces with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking Duomo Square. Known to host fashion shows, corporate events, concerts, and more, the space also shines as an intimate spot where guests can relax.
SHOPPING
13. 10 Corso Como
Set in the inner courtyard of a traditional Milanese palazzo, 10 Corso Como, designed by Kris Ruhs, is as much a cultural exploration as it is a shopping destination. The multifunctional space for meeting and mingling features a gallery, a bookshop, a fashion-focused store, a restaurant and café, a rooftop garden, and a three-room hotel.
14. Moooi
Opening in celebration of Salone del Mobile, this latest Moooi location is brand new to Milan. The space is transformed into a whimsical and luxurious haven where guests can explore new developments in interior design and be submerged in the full Moooi brand experience.
