Artissima 2026: Where Curators Go to Discover
GEN DE ART
Coming straight after Frieze London and Art Basel Paris, Artissima is a very different kind of fair. Collectors and curators arrive in Turin with a full schedule behind them, and the 33rd edition, running 30 October to 1 November at the Oval Lingotto Fiere, doesn't try to compete on scale or star names. It offers something else: a chance to see things people haven’t seen before, helped along by the new Curators’ Choice, where curators pick out the galleries they discovered at the fair.
Director Luigi Fassi, now in his fifth year, is clear about the fair's position. Artissima is the only fair in Italy focused entirely on contemporary art, with no modern art and no design alongside it. Other Italian fairs, such as those in Milan and Bologna, mix in modern work. "We focus solely on contemporary art, we have no exception," he says, and he believes that sharp focus is now paying off.
Discovery over confirmation
The clearest difference from other European fairs is the line-up. This year 183 galleries from 35 countries are taking part, 66 of them with monographic projects, and 37 are coming to Artissima for the first time. For Fassi, this is the main point. Many fairs lean on established names, so you know in advance what you will find. At Artissima, he says, you are likely to run into galleries and artists you have never come across. "Collectors keep asking me to do more of this," he explains. They want the pleasure of discovery, and the same goes for curators who are still putting together their 2027 and 2028 programmes.
The fair has also been scouting further afield. Around ten galleries come from Asia, including Vanguard Gallery from Shanghai, ss space space from Taipei, IAH and Vohm from Seoul, and Maki Fine Arts and Side 2 from Tokyo, alongside a long-running thread of galleries from Latin America. Fassi sees Artissima as an accessible way into the European market for these galleries, with a large number of institutional curators on the floor. He says he has been travelling to Asia more than before and expects to go even more often in the coming months.
A fair built around curators
If collectors are one half of the audience, curators are the other, and this is where the fair is putting its effort this year. The new Curators' Choice programme invites 18 European curators, mostly in their thirties and forties, to spend time at the fair and each single out one gallery they discovered and found impressive. The nominations will be announced almost like an award. Fassi describes it as a way of building a network among a younger generation of curators, who may not know each other yet, while giving galleries another route to the curatorial world. Supported by Fondazione Arte CRT, the programme fits a longer ambition. Artissima has always been called "the fair preferred by curators," and Fassi says it is a good moment to update that reputation.
Around it sits a dozen prizes, from the illy Present Future Prize to the new Seletti Wonder Award and the Archivorum Unwritten award for artist-led publishing. One of them is dedicated to young female gallerists, which Fassi believes is quite unusual. Each is judged by established curators and directors, so the prizes double as another meeting point between curators and galleries. There is also a €300,000 acquisition fund for the collections of Castello di Rivoli and GAM, supported by Fondazione Arte CRT, which enables both museums to acquire works directly from the fair.
Public, and a little more generous
Another thing that sets Artissima apart is who runs it. The fair belongs to a public foundation owned by the city of Turin, which Fassi says gives it room to keep participation costs lower, particularly for young galleries. "You can participate without putting too much financial stress on you," is how he puts it. That matters in a market he admits is not at its strongest. Artissima describes itself as something of an incubator for newer galleries, Italian and international alike.
The public mission also shows in the programme. Artissima Junior, run with Turin-based football club Juventus, introduces children aged 6 to 11 to contemporary art. The film and video exhibition NO FUTURE, curated by Alice Motard at Gallerie d'Italia, is now in its fifth year and features only artists represented by participating galleries, giving them extra exposure beyond the booth. Fassi wants even a non-professional audience to be able to come in and get to know contemporary art.
Italy as a meeting point
For Italian professionals, Fassi says, Artissima is a rare chance to meet the international scene without leaving home, and for Italian galleries to test themselves among international peers. For foreign galleries, it is a way to reach Italian collectors, whom Fassi describes as less speculative and more interested in a real relationship with art and galleries. Italy also has a network of private foundations set up by collectors, from Turin to Milan, so the audience is unusually engaged. The VIP programme looks after about 600 collectors, roughly 60 percent of them international, and is built around Turin’s institutions. This year those include the largest Marisa Merz retrospective to date, shared between Castello di Rivoli, GAM and Fondazione Merz.
Japan has a particular place in this edition. The anonymous art project, founded by entrepreneur Hiroyuki Maki, returns for its second year at the fair after a successful debut in 2025, when it presented four Japanese artists. Maki was impressed by the quality of the audience, Fassi says, and decided to come back. This time the presentation is curated by Namiki Serizawa and focuses on three leading figures from Japan’s contemporary scene: Rhizomatiks, Alexa Kumiko Hatanaka and Sputniko!
Why Turin, why now
For anyone arriving from London and Paris, Artissima's pitch is easy to summarise. It is smaller, more focused, and built around curiosity rather than confirmation, in a city where museums, foundations and collectors are all within reach. As Fassi puts it, the fair wants to give both collectors and curators the chance to find names they did not know before. After two weeks of the biggest names in the market, that may be exactly the point.
Information
Artissima
30 October – 1 November 2026
Oval Lingotto, Turin
