October 30–November 1, 2026
Italy
Artissima presents the 33rd iteration of the fair, held from Friday October 30 to Sunday November 1, 2026, and directed for the fifth year by Luigi Fassi.
Artissima Internazionale d’Arte Contemporanea di Torino, the only Italian fair with an exclusive focus on contemporary art, announces its 33rd edition: an appointment that coincides with the fifth year under the direction of Luigi Fassi, and enables us to interpret the past editions as a progressive, coherent curatorial path. During the course of these five editions, and in line with a precise project identity, Fassi has consolidated a working method that has shaped Artissima as an authoritative space of critical reflection on the contemporary, while reinforcing its dual, parallel nature, as a commercial fair on the one hand, and a platform of international cultural diplomacy, an institution of faith in contemporary art, on the other.
Today Artissima creates relationships involving galleries, artists, institutions, geographical zones and different identities, generating new possibilities of dialogue between the territory and a global dimension, while confirming the fair as a space of sensitivity and discussion, in which art acts as a practice of imagination, relation and transformation of the gaze. Year after year, for Artissima Fassi has designed an itinerary of exploration of art, applied as a tool to investigate the unknown across the complexity of the present, while imagining new possibilities of relation and shared experience.
Artissima will take place from Friday October 30 to Sunday November 1, 2026 (October 29 preview), with the support of the Main Partner Intesa Sanpaolo and with Gallerie d’Italia—Torino, the bank’s museum, joining forces with Artissima for the seventh year. The four historic sections of the fair—Main Section, New Entries, Monologue/Dialogue and Art Editions—and the three curated sections—Present Future, Back to the Future and Disegni—will come to life in the luminous spaces of the Oval Lingotto Fiere di Torino.
The theme
The theme of Artissima 2026 is Fancy: A Flexible, Acrobatic Body. It arises from an image formulated by the philosopher Martha C. Nussbaum to assert that the language of art, guided by fancy—the forward projection of fantasy—possesses such a body, capable of poetically crossing complexities and differences and approaching the plurality of those who are “other than” us.
Art does not simply grant form to what exists; it opens the field to what could exist, becoming crucial public intelligence, capable of nurturing and enriching the democratic institutions of a community. Artissima embodies this acrobatic exercise of imagination, oriented toward still invisible possibilities: the fair is a physical, intense and accelerated encounter with works of art, which trains us to rethink the way we see, inhabit and share the present.
As Luigi Fassi explains: “This year’s theme narrates the acrobatic quality of fancy, the projective force of imagination made possible by art. According to Martha C. Nussbaum, fancy is a language that should be continually exercised: a faculty capable of venturing beyond the obvious, transcending the object and opening a more benevolent gaze toward others in our moral, political and civil relations. One of the most profound functions of art lies in this transformative capacity: to modify the viewer, to sharpen the possibility of identification with the experiences of others. It is the form of art itself—corporeal, complex, mobile—that guides us toward this opening, in a democratic practice of the gaze, which opposes rigidity and closure through the free movement of fantasy. Artissima has always been a place in which thought takes form in unexpected encounters: between different works, bodies, ideas and sensibilities. Fancy therefore seems to be a word capable of narrating not only the energy of contemporary art, but also the continuous movement of the fair itself, its way of being a living space of experimentation, intuition and discovery.”
The selection committee
Artissima in 2026 confirms the selection committee for the galleries taking part in the flagship sections—Main Section, Monologue/Dialogue, New Entries and Art Editions—composed of international gallerists: Paola Capata (Monitor, Roma, Lisbon and Pereto), Philippe Charpentier (mor charpentier, Paris and Bogota), Guido Costa (Guido Costa Projects, Torino), Emanuel Layr (Layr, Vienna), Francesco Lecci (Clima, Milano), Antoine Levi (Ciaccia Levi, Paris and Torino) and Elsa Ravazzolo Botner (A Gentil Carioca, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo). The Main Section is composed of the most highly acclaimed galleries on the international scene, offering collectors and the public an overview of the highest quality. Monologue/Dialogue is for emerging galleries and/or those with an experimental approach, participating with a monographic stand or a dialogue between the works of two artists. New Entries brings together the most interesting emerging international galleries with less than five years of activity, taking part in Artissima for the first time. Art Editions is the special section on non-profit galleries and spaces, presenting editions, prints and multiples by contemporary artists.
The curatorial team
Artissima confirms the team of curators who will work on the three curated sections—Present Future, Back to the Future and Disegni—concretely experienced inside the fair thanks to thematic exhibits. For the third year, Léon Kruijswijk (performance curator at Mudam Luxembourg) and Joel Valabrega (independent curator based in Porto and Milano) are the curators of Present Future, the section on rising talents that contains monographic projects with the aim of highlighting the new trends in international art. Jacopo Crivelli Visconti (director of the Albuquerque Foundation in Sintra) and Heike Munder (independent curator and writer based in Zurich) return for a third year to curate Back to the Future, the section of Artissima that presents monographic projects of contemporary art in different moments and places, within the time span 1930-1990, having the courage to act in opposition to what they perceived as wrong. For Disegni, Irina Zucca Alessandrelli (curator of Collezione Ramo in Milano and Milano Drawing Week) returns to this role for a fifth consecutive year. The section—the only one in Italian art fairs focusing on drawing as an expressive medium—presents projects formulated as solo exhibitions, to bring out the authenticity and independence of works on paper.
The visual identity of Artissima 2026
Artissima renews its collaboration with the Torino-based graphic design firm FIONDA for the ninth consecutive year. In 2026 the coordinated image interprets the theme Fancy: A Flexible, Acrobatic Body: the logos of the past, becoming parentheses, are transformed into a visual system in constant evolution. The forms bend, multiply and generate unexpected trajectories, suggesting openness, transformation and possibility. A visual identity that reinterprets its own history to embrace new potentialities and future imaginaries.
