Milan Art Week 2026 returns: the city turns into a stage for contemporary art

Milan is preparing to host its 10th edition of Milano Art Week, scheduled for April 13-19, 2026. The week dedicated to contemporary art, promoted by the City of Milan in conjunction with the 30th edition of miart, the international modern and contemporary art fair, will transform the city into a widespread stage, with exhibitions, talks, workshops, guided tours, performances and extraordinary openings. More than 200 entities including institutions, museums, universities, foundations, galleries and associations will contribute to a program of more than 400 events, involving the entire urban area in an integrated and plural cultural experience.

“Once again this year Milan confirms itself as an international crossroads for contemporary art, offering citizens and visitors a rich and widespread program that crosses the entire urban fabric,” says Culture Councillor Tommaso Sacchi. “The tenth edition of Milano Art Week accompanies the thirtieth edition of miart, which takes the opportunity of this anniversary to innovate profoundly, but also embraces the arrival of Paris Internationale, the independent platform founded in Paris in 2015, which for its first edition outside France chooses Milan, confirming the centrality of our city on the European and international art scene.”

Coordinated by Arte Totale ETS, an association that brings together ArtsFor_, Artshell and MAC Milano Art Community, the2026 edition of Milan Art Week features artists such as Benni Bosetto, Cao Fei, Jeremy Deller, Marco Fusinato, Gabrielle Goliath, Mona Hatoum, Anselm Kiefer, Ugo La Pietra, Diego Marcon, Robert Mapplethorpe, Man Ray, Bruno Munari, Chiharu Shiota, Hito Steyerl, Nanda Vigo, Vincenzo Agnetti, Villiam Miklos Andersen, Yuval Avital, Kim Bohie, Ambra Castagnetti, Letizia Cariello, Mandalaki, Paola Pivi, Aronne Pleuteri, Walter Pfeffer, Francesco Simeti, Rirkrit Tiravanija, and Romane de Watteville, among many others. The program is developed thanks to main sponsor Banca Generali and partners SEA Milan Airports, BiM, My Art Guide and ARTnews Italia, in collaboration with miart and with the support of the city’s cultural institutions.

Among the novelties of this edition is the Ghost Track project, the result of the collaboration between the Civic Museums of the City of Milan and MAC Milano Art Community, which proposes interventions by contemporary artists within city museums not dedicated to modern and contemporary art, such as the Castello Sforzesco Museums, the Civic Archaeological Museum, the Museum of Natural History, theCivic Aquarium and the Museum of the Risorgimento. These interventions dialogue with the historical collections, fitting into showcases or exhibition itineraries without altering the usual fruition and introducing new levels of reading, inviting the public to rediscover the city’s museum heritage and strengthening ties within the art and museum community. Admission to the City of Milan’s Civic Museums will be free for Milano Museo Card holders.

Renewed partnership with Democracy and Culture Foundation and The New York Times, which together with Milano & Partners and with the support of DILS promote Art for Tomorrow Talks - The Blurry Border Between Design & Art: on April 14 at the Civic Aquarium international experts will discuss the border between art and design. Among the most anticipated events of the week are the exhibition THE ONLY TRUE ANARCHY IS THAT OF POWER at PAC Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea, which opens with a performance by Marco Fusinato, and thesite-specific work Παρνασσός / Parnassus by Letia(Letizia Cariello) at GAM - Gallery of Modern Art, created especially for the Parnassus Room.

The Museo del Novecento deepens the dialogue between the historical collection and contemporary research with a series of new projects: salut! hallo! hello! by Diego Marcon enters the ACACIA Collection donated to the museum, the FOCUS900 program is enriched with Vedere l’aria by Bruno Munari, while the FORUM900 picture gallery renews the permanent itinerary by selecting contemporary works that have entered the collection over the years. LOUNGE900 presents a remounting of works from the Spagna Bellora Collection. Palazzo Reale hosts Anselm Kiefer’s exhibition Le Alchimiste, Metaphysics/Metaphysics, Robert Mapplethorpe and a reinterpretation of the Macchiaioli, while at MUDEC Chiharu Shiota ’s The Sense of Snow continues with the site-specific installation The Moment the Snow Melts. At Castello Sforzesco, Sabrina D’Alessandro ’s Leonardo Parlante project recovers words from the Codex Trivulzianus, bringing to light forgotten words by Leonardo da Vinci.

The 2026 edition also marks the completion of ArtLine Milano, an open-air contemporary art park within CityLife with 20 site-specific works by international and under-40 artists, including Jeremy Deller’s new installation Octospider. At the same time, Cristina Finucci opens at the Museum of Natural History TRACES, the first of four chapters of the multidisciplinary Science Museums program, which continues with Antarctica Melting Beauty. Aurora at the Milan Aquarium, a project born out of the encounter between Paola Marzotto ’s photographic research and the Institute’s science popularization.

Private foundations such as Fondazione Prada, Pirelli HangarBicocca, Fondazione ICA Milano, Fondazione Luigi Rovati, Fondazione Terzoluogo, Fondazione Officine Saffi and Fondazione Elpis, together with independent spaces and associative realities such as BASE Milano, Casa degli Artisti, Assab One and VIAFARINI, contribute to the program with exhibitions, installations and site-specific interventions, ranging from visual art to performance, from design to architecture. Notable projects include Paper/Northern Lights by Gianni Pettena in the spaces of BiM, Una Porta per il Casello by Mohammed El Hajoui at theOpen Casello in Porta Genova, and IDIORYTHMIA - RE-U by studio smarin at the Ground Hall of BASE. Ugo La Pietra presents the dual projects ERBARIO and GLI INVASATI at Casa degli Artisti, while Assab One inaugurates new site-specific works and exhibitions dedicated to artists such as Alice Fiorilli and Marco Palmieri.

Milan galleries are participating with new openings and special presentations: Kim Bohie and Pierpaolo Campanini, Simone Fattal at kaufmann repetto, Man Ray: M for Dictionary at Gió Marconi, Gabrielle Goliath at Galleria Raffaella Cortese, When The Sun Sets at Ncontemporary andLuciano Sozio ’s Waiting for Time at Galleria Arrivada. These are joined by ArtNoble, Velo Project, MATTA, VISTAMARE, Martina Simeti, MICAMERA and ZERO. .., helping to consolidate the dialogue between artists, curators, collectors and the public.

April 17-19 sees the return of miart, the international modern and contemporary art fair, which celebrates its 30th edition in 2026 with the theme New Directions, inspired by John Coltrane’s album, and Paris Internationale comes to Milan for the first time, hosted at Palazzo Galbani from April 18-21, bringing a selection of international independent artists.

Universities such as Bicocca, NABA, International School of Comics and ICONE - European Research Center for History and Theory of the Image of theVita-Salute San Raffaele University contribute research and training projects. Performances and talks complement the week’s widespread experience: Ambra Castagnetti at Villa Clea, BODIES ONTHE STAGE atAlberto Burri’s Teatro Continuo (organized by Teatro Linguaggicreativi), Mototrombe! by Aronne Pleuteri and Dario Buccino for a traveling urban parade, and the talk Alchemia between Science and Art with Anselm Kiefer and Natacha Fabbri at Teatro dal Verme.

Banca Generali opens the BG Art Gallery to the public with guided tours and focus on the BG Art Talent project. Projects in public and infrastructural spaces such as Steve McCurry ’s The World in Motion at Malpensa Terminal 1 and Fabio Giampietro ’s UPRISE at Porta di Milano explore the relationship between the physical and digital city, while informal moments such as Arte Sagra at the UFO space and the Milano Art Week Party at BiM weave music, performance and interaction with installations. Projects on the relationship between art, design and architecture round out the offerings: Yuval Avital ’s Mountain Echoes at Bagni Misteriosi at Teatro Franco Parenti, Breath. Architecture of Lightness at Volvo Studio Milano, and exhibitions dedicated to Enrico Peressutti and Nanda Vigo by Fondazione Pasquinelli and Fondazione Culturale San Fedele.

Milan Art Week 2026 returns: the city turns into a stage for contemporary art

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