miaart 2025 SoiL, shoes, uplifting colors, and a touch of dystopia.
SoiL Thornton, presented by Maxwell Graham (New York) was our first find—an artist from Brooklyn, New York. A place we won’t be visiting anytime soon, thanks to the USA’s new immigration regime. But hey, that’s what art fairs are for, right?
The first triptych reminded me of calling cards—the kind you used to find in phone booths. And here it was, displayed in a fair booth. Apparently, the mobile number on it works. You can call the artist, though I doubt I can afford what they’re selling. And honestly, once I start, I’m not sure I’ll be able to stop.
It’s a reflection on what it means to be an artist today: “always on call,” always available. The title is censored survival painting—and in the current climate, you can probably guess why (I’m sure some of those words are on the banned list, aren’t they?).
Also on the stand, by the same artist, was one of several literal shoe references. This one: a Maison Margiela shoe sole, titled A Height’s Presence In Isolating. Whose Do You Put Yourself In And Why (Low Right)—a removed shoe sole with one day’s worth of Manhattan debris.
Following the shoe trend, we next visited Ginny on Frederick (London), where the entire stand was devoted to footwear by artist Jack O’Brien—some pieces from his own collection, others donated by friends, and a few from Ferragamo. Stacked, deconstructed, and intertwined with industrial materials, O’Brien’s series transforms shoes into architectural relics—footsteps frozen in time, suspended between function and abstraction. Wrapped, stretched, or poised mid-collapse, the works channel the restless energy of urban life, where fashion, labor, and desire collide.
Then we crossed the aisle to see Tasneem Sarkez, another New York–based artist, presented by Rose Easton (London) in a joint showing with Eva Gold. Sarkez’s new paintings, including Golden Gun (pictured above), continue the shoe theme while delving into early 2000s Libyan culture and its entanglement with Italian aesthetics—a fitting nod, given we’re in Milan. The golden gun also feels unmistakably Trumpian, and one can’t help but imagine that, were he still alive and in power, Trump and Gaddafi might have made oddly good friends.
There was also a pair of trainers by Wilfred Almendra (Marseille) over at DOCUMENT (Chicago), but in Milan—especially this season—trainers still don’t quite count as shoes.
And then I saw a pair of paintings at the fair that just made me feel really happy. The image above doesn’t quite do them justice—I spotted them from across the room, and my heart skipped a beat. They’re by Julien Meert (also known as Roger 3000), presented by Lodovico Corsini (Brussels).
He painted them during a residency in Spain, and you can feel it: the colors, the sun, the… whatever. Don’t overthink it—just feel. Uplifting. The gallerist called them “Joyous Paintings,” and that’s exactly what they are.
Then, a touch of dystopia: Davide Allieri at Galerie Hubert Winter (Vienna). We talked 60s sci-fi, Elon Musk, journeys to Mars. “Yes, that’s legitimate,” said the gallerist, “but these were created during COVID. The artist is from Bergamo, where the pandemic first erupted in Europe.”
Bergamo was hit devastatingly hard, with a reluctance to shut down in the early days. Official figures recorded 9,712 cases and 2,245 deaths—but according to Eco di Bergamo, the true toll may have been closer to 4,500 lives lost in March 2020 alone. (The Guardian)
And with that, we crash-landed. It was time to return home.
miart 2025 ran from April 4th – April 6th (April 3rd Preview) featuring 179 galleries from 31 countries and 5 continents with major gallery returns & significant new exhibitors.
