Keeping Up With Milano's Art: An Extended Guide to Art Week and Design Week
April is a bustling time for the Milanese art scene, with a full calendar of events drawing attention across the city. In this issue of Keeping Up With Milano’s Art, I’ll spotlight some special happenings of both Milano Art Week (1-6 April) and Milano Design Week (8-13 April), from new exhibition openings and one-off talks to performances and temporary installations that you can catch in old courtyards and repurposed industrial spaces.
Of course, the two biggest events for the dedicated crowd are miart, Milan’s International Modern and Contemporary Art Fair (4-6 April) and the international furniture and design fair Salone del Mobile (8-13 April), which need no introduction.
But this artistic fortnight is one of the best ways to explore the city in a whole new light. So, I’ve collected a couple of personal recommendations (from the many events) to help navigate the buzz with a curated mini-calendar.
House of Switzerland
Exhibition Openings and Ongoing Shows:
Thai Mainhard
At Shazar Gallery La Stanza Project Room, Via Carlo Farini 2 cort interno
Brazilian artist Thai Mainhard combines a range of media to create polychromous canvases at the boundary of figuration, abstraction, and pattern.
01/04/25 – 06/04/25
Paradiso, Gian Maria Tostatti
At Magazzini Raccordati della Stazione Centrale
Presented by Lia Rumma
In the words of the artist, “It is a dystopian and lacerating image of a sky declined in this historical present”.
Until 11/04/25
Franco Ndiba e la scena artistica di Douala (Franco Ndiba and the artistic scene of Douala)
At Federico Rui Arte Contemporanea, Via di porta Tenaglia 1/3
In his first solo exhibition in Italy, Cameroonian artist Franco Ndiba reconstructs the environment and people that surround him through zones of colour that together form the figures and personalities of his portagonists.
Until 11/04/25
Open Score
At BiM Milano, Viale Piero E Alberto Pirelli 10
Curated by Nicola Ricciardi (the Director of miart) and inspired by the eponymous performance by Robert Rauschenberg of 1966, “Open Score” is an immersive project of video, light and sound.
01/04/25 – 27/04/25
Intimate Tales
At Galleria Monica de Cardenas, Via Francesco Viganò 4
The exhibition features five painters (Leonardo Devito, Louis Fratino, Nikki Maloof, Danielle Orchard and Alessandro Teoldi) and their use of figurative language, inspired by avant-garde movements of Cubism, Expressionism, and Magical Realism, to image their personal lives.
Opening 05/04/25, 18.00
Until 17/05/25
Robert Wilson, Mother
At Museo Pietà Rondanini, Castello Sforzesco, Piazza Castello
A site-specific installation presented by Salone del Mobile bridging art, light and sound.
06/04/25 – 18/05/25
Romantic Brutalism: A Journey into Polish Craft and Design
At Viale di Porta Vercellina, 11
Polish cultural identity through design and craftmanship, exploring influences from Art Deco to brutalism and folk culture.
07/04/25 – 13/04/25
House of Switzerland
At Casa degli Artisti, Via Tommaso da Cazzaniga, Corso Garibaldi, 89/A
Featuring creations by independent designers, studios, universities, brands, and galleries, the exhibition showcases the diversity of Swiss design and how collaboration has been a cornerstone of the country’s development.
07/04/25 – 13/04/25
Saint Laurent – Charlotte Perriand
At Padiglione Visconti, Via Tortona 58
Previously existing only as single editions or sketches, the historic pieces in this exhibition are rare, elegant designs by Charlotte Perriand.
08/04/25 – 13/04/25
Frozen, Tokujin Yoshioka, for Grand Seiko
At Palazzo Landriani, Via Borgonuovo, 25
A collaboration with renowned designer Tokujin Yoshioka, featuring the “Aqua Chair”, a transparent light sculpture that evolves over time, embodying the fusion of art, nature, and the essence of time.
08/04/25 – 13/04/25
Rasa – The Indian Collective
At Viafarini, Via Carlo Farini 35
An exhibition highlighting contemporary Indian design, featuring works by 15 studios and designers that blend traditional craftsmanship with modern aesthetics through materials of glass, marble textile and more.
08/04/25 – 13/04/25
Speak, Memory: A Conversation Across Time
At Casa Cabana
Exceptional designs of ceramics, leatherwork, sculpture and woodwork engage with Casa Cabana’s Renzo Mongiardino-designed interiors (free entry with registration).
09/04/25 – 11/04/25
DOPO?
Events and Performances:
Rigore e fascino: il cinema di Chantal Akerman (Rigour and charm: the cinema of Chantal Akerman)
At Cineteca Milano Arlecchino
Screenings and Performances of director Chantal Akerman’s major films.
02/04/25 – Screening, 20.00 – 23.30
03/04/25 – Screening, 19.00 – 21.00
05/04/25 – Performance, 21.00 – 23.00
06/04/25 – Screening, 17.00 – 19.00
Performance – The Scent of Your Memory by Jazgul Madazimova
For the exhibition You Are Here, Central Asia
At Fondazione Elpis, Via Alfonso Lamarmora 26
Jazgul Madazimova is an artist based in Kyrgyzstan who explores the public and social practice of art through performative installations centred on themes of migration, personal perspectives and gender.
02/04/25, 18.30 – 19.30
Performance – Concertino in Giardino
At DOPO?, Via Carlo Boncompagni 51/10
A small informal concert, part of the festival “Performing Architetcure” (free entry with registration).
04/04/25, 19.00 – 21.00
Festival all’Ortica
Ex Fabbrica Ginori, via Tucidide 56
An afternoon of artistic installations, performances, live music and beer (free entry with registration)
06/04/25, 16.00 – 22.00
Performance – With All My Strength by Martina Rota
At BASE Milano, Via Bergognone Da Fossano 34
(free entry with registration)
06/04/25, 18.30 – 23.30
Miu Miu Literary Club 2025 – A Woman’s Education
At Circolo Filologico Milanese, Via Clerici 10
Exploring themes of girlhood, love and sex education through the works of Simone de Beauvoir and Fumiko Enchi, reinterpreted in performances and conversations.
09/04/25 – 10/04/25
Casa Museo Spazio Tadini