RASSEGNA MIART 2019

17/05/19, 14*54 Meet the miart Early Birds: 10 Fairgoers Share Their Highlights of Milan's International Art Fair | artnet News Pagina 6 di 7 https://news.artnet.com/art-world/meet-the-people-of-miart-1509460 liked the 1960s Maria Lai works in the “decades” section. She’s an author [and textile artist] who died in 2013, but her work has been recently rediscovered by the museum director Lorenzo Giusti. He staged one of the first exhibitions of her works in Bergamo. I really appreciate it. Valeria Napoleone Valeria Napoleone. Photo by Naomi Rea. How long have you been here? I’ve been here since 11 a.m. [about six hours]. I come to miart every year. I’ve been on the honorary committee since its very beginning when Alessandro Rabottini and [fellow curator] Vincenzo de Bellis launched the new miart, and it’s been a joy to see it going from strength to strength. I don’t like big fairs. I don’t function well in them. I prefer small fairs, and miart is really the perfect size. It’s a targeted fair with a targeted offer. The level of the artists are really emerging and mid-career, it’s not all about the so-called “blue chip” things. At smaller fairs it’s also possible to talk to people and catch up, and discuss the work instead of this high pressure environment. What are some of the best presentations you’ve seen so far? I always find incredible new artists and I love the “generations” section, it’s my favorite. It tells you how well managed and curated the fair is. The design section has also come along nicely, it’s improved a lot since the beginning. It’s well integrated. It’s not big but they picked great galleries. The emergent section is also very interesting, I always find something for me as well. I really liked this younger artist from Iran, Arghavan Khosravi, at a Brussels gallery, Stems. In recent years we’ve lost the appreciation of mastery of technique, which is really the case with her paintings. Whenever I find a new artist at fairs I’m really very excited. It’s not easy to be surprised nowadays, or to be impressed either. Have you acquired anything for your collection today? I haven’t acquired anything for my collection, yet. About 60 to 70 percent of the time, I don’t buy at art fairs. I mainly buy artists I know from galleries I know. At a fair, I’m excited to encounter new work but I need to learn more, and I need time to think it over. I’m not one for rash decisions. Also, too many galleries do too many fairs and ask artists to make work specifically for the fair, and I don’t want to buy art that was made for a fair. There needs to be the right context, and I buy from galleries with integrity, not production machines. What kind of works do you collect? My collection is very focused on female, contemporary, living artists, and that is the only criteria applied. I try to make it global, not just Europe and America, and any medium. It’s a very personal collection: whatever I feel connected to, respond to, and practices that are important and relevant to the contemporary landscape. 05/04/2019 web web foglio sheet 6/7 N