Artissima is the international contemporary art fair that’s a key part of Torino Art Week. In this roundup, the travelling @LondonArtCritic, has selected his highlights from the fair and some of the top exhibitions in wider Turin.
Victoria Sidaru at Suprainfinit, Bucharest
Long tentacles filled with planet material surround us and hang over us in this immersive booth. The structures are held together by cloth hand-spun by women in the artist’s home village over 100 years ago, and references the natural remedies of the 12th-century Benedictine Abbess and healer Hildegard of Bingen. Both the artist and gallery are new to me, and it’s the type of ambitious booth I love to see at art fairs.
Guendalina Urbani at Umberto Benappi, Turin
Nothing is as it seems on this booth. You can walk through the jail cell bars, the giant chain looks like it’s defying gravity because it’s lighter than it seems, and the broken glass won’t cut you because it’s rubbery. When a gallery shows at a ‘home fair’, it can often take risks, but sadly, we’ve seen less of it in this challenging market. So, it’s great to see this Turin gallery willing to showcase these playful works.
Nina Silverberg at Soup, London
The new galleries section is strong, and my highlight is Nina Silverberg’s books and her fascination with the worlds contained within the confines of each book she’s painted. Furthering this Inception-esque world within worlds, the works are all hung inside a giant book mural. It’s always great when a booth goes that extra step. There are also strong showings in this section from Pipeline (London), Cable Depot (formerly London, now Sofia), and ASNI (Riga – one of my highlights from Riga Art Week).
Iran do Espirito Santo at Mazzoleni, Milan, London, Turin
The more established galleries are towards the centre of the fair, and a highlight is the work of Iran do Espirito Santo, who plays with material and scale; in one example, a lightbulb becomes much larger and made of granite. He also has an excellent survey show at Mazzoleni’s Turin space, featuring a human-sized compass and upturned light fixtures that look like serving dishes.
Michele Guido at Lia Rumma, Naples, Milan
One of the special projects within the fair is a section of drawings, and I was most drawn to Michele Guido’s immersive booth examining the plight of olive trees in Puglia. They are being devastated by an imported bacterium, as shown in a cross-section of a tree where it has destroyed the vascular system and the rings we usually see in trees. It’s an area famous for its olive oil, making it a particularly Italian problem that’s part of the global story of ecological collapse.
Artissima runs from 30th October to 2nd November at the Oval Lingotto, Turin. @artissimafair
Outside Artissima
Turin Art Week means there’s plenty to see around the city, including the Pinacoteca Agnelli, located near the fair. It’s always worth checking out the Pista 500, an outdoor track on the roof of the old Fiat factory, which is now peppered with public art. New additions include works by Paul Pfeiffer that include recordings of football chants from a Juventus match and a generated image of what a football stadium would look like if it could hold a million spectators.
The venue also has a great historical collection that is juxtaposed with the thoughtful works of Piotr Uklanski that includes many art historical references to the works, and an Alice Neel show that features many of the works from the recent Barbican exhibition in London. Both run until 6th April 2026.
The highlight in the city is the Chiharu Shiota exhibition at the Museum of Oriental Art (MAO), which runs until 28th June 2026. Her works that reference memory, history, migration and trauma are all surrounded by her trademark threads, weather that be a piano seen through a black web or pieces of luggage suspended in the air that move and knock against one another, in stunning installations. It’s definitely the hot ticket in town.
The other highlight is Laure Prouvost’s new installation at the OGR. A large fabric installation shimmers and rises and lowers above us. We must lie down to watch the video and stick our heads inside sculptures to listen to a humorous spoken word piece. It’s got all the whimsy we’ve come to expect from her art and as the installation lights up and the plunges us into darkness, it’s mesmerising. The venue is also hosting the engaging Electric Dreams exhibition, which was originally at Tate Modern. Both exhibitions run until 10th May.
All images are copyright and courtesy of the respective artist and gallery or institution. Mazzoleni photo: Mazen Jannoun. Pinacoteca Agnelli image of a work by Superflex, photo: Tabish Khan. Laure Provost image: Commissioned by LAS Art Foundation and OGR Torino. Photo: Andrea Rossetti.
