ARTE FIERA 2025 (now in its 48th stage) has come to an end and it is time to take stock of one of the most anticipated events for art and photography enthusiasts. We too therefore allow ourselves to indicate ten artists (some with just one work, others in terms of personal exhibition) who have left us with an excellent impression, accompanying the contribution with some review elements and knowing that the list is decidedly subjective and that we could have included others, given the wealth of artistic proposals seen at the fair.
Diana Anselmo, “The Hearing Clinic, Hector Marichelle and a World War I Soldier”, ecosolvet photographic print on polymaterial vinyl, 1918, courtesy Galleria Eugenia Delfini
The first is an artist who was not actually on display but who, thanks to a kind and private viewing, deserves to be included in this list. It is Diana Anselmo from Palermo, a young queer photographer born in 1997, deaf, proposed by Eugenia Delfini’s Roman gallery. Since speech therapists from a hundred years ago believed deaf people were only capable of “chewing,” the artist takes black and white photos of a Parisian socio-medical institute and, revisiting the original, covers the face of the very young deaf patient with chewing gum. The thematic project is called “Deafnotdead” and allows Anselmo to act politically, denouncing the coercive methods and medical obligation to which the bodies of the students are subjected.
Giacomo Segantin, “Ruins”, diptych, pigment print on photographic paper with Diasec, courtesy Artopia Gallery
“Revision of a Landscape” is the project of another young photographer, Giacomo Segantin, born in Veneto in 1995, proposed by the Milanese Artopia Gallery. As the title suggests, in this case too the artist works on archive images, in this case photographs of fabrics from the Metropolitan in New York, from which he extrapolates the scenes that do not include hunting or fishing and, before the final draft, he immerses the photograph, which has been reworked in the (toxic) liquid of the pokeweed berry.
William Guerrieri, “Palestra” (from “Ambienti Pubblici”), 1993, courtesy of the artist and Galleria Antonio Verolino
Third artist photographer to mention is a great confirmation: seen in the booth of Galleria Antonio Verolino from Modena, the photographic triptych by William Guerrieri is yet another authorial gem by this photographer who has long been a protagonist of the eighth Italian art (among other things co-creator and co-founder of the investigative project “Linea di Confine per la Fotografia Contemporanea”). In particular, the “Gym” that is part of the project on “Public Environments”, in this case we are in 1993, is truly a small masterpiece that disconcerts the observer, also thanks to deliberate perspective tricks: there is a chair along the line that delimits the school playing field, and in front of the chair there is a desk but there is neither the student nor the teacher. This double absence creates an effect of suspension for which the context is not immediately recognizable precisely because they are spaces without presences.
Lori Nix, “Subway”, 2012, courtesy Paci Contemporary
The fourth and last photography artist who has aroused much interest in us is the American Lori Nix, proposed by Paci Contemporary. Nix’s photography is staged, therefore very constructed, contaminating the scene with urbex elements, objects and daily life places, connotations of the post-industrial era and environments of degradation: humanity is no longer there and nature takes back its spaces, especially in urban areas (“The City” is the project of these disturbing color representations).
Sebastiano Impellizzeri, “Nudo disteso”, olio su tela, 325 x 425 cm, 2022, ph. Max Tomasinel, courtesy l’artista e Société Interludio
The first painter to mention is Sebastiano Impellizzeri, a young artist from Catania who is now a Turin resident and is just over forty years old. He was proposed by the young gallery owners of Société Interludio. Present in the five finalists of the “Osvaldo Licini” Award, the artist has belonged to the Turin gallery’s nursery for a long time now, with a constant path of growth and valorization. The solo show in Bologna brings us back to a very nuanced chromatic palette, in which the backgrounds tend to reveal little but manage to familiarize us with the depicted subject (still lifes, erotic silhouettes, industrial landscapes…).
Flora Temnouche, A+B Gallery, ph. Giovanni Crotti
The result of more recent discovery is the thirty-year-old French artist Flora Temnouche proposed by the Brescia-based A+B Gallery of Dario Bonetta. The solo exhibition on display represents a change of direction for the gallery owner. From the abstract and informal, we also plunge here into soft colors and domestic scenes depicted with a visual pause effect, questioning what could be beyond the wall that delimits the scene.
Giovanni Bonelli Gallery
With Nicola Verlato, proposed by Giovanni Bonelli, we return to an artist who is now well-established (born in 1965) who reinterprets iconic figures with much subjectivity. His “San Sebastiano” is revisited first of all by placing the figure in a horizontal position, lying on one side, and in a scenic context that is not the classical one we are used to. In this oil there are many centuries of figurative art: the strength of the artist is that of being able to send us the image with unprecedented luminosity, engaging spatiality, new classicism.
Atipografia booth at Arte Fiera 2025
A decisive dive into the territory of belonging is the proposal of Atipografia (Arzignano, near Vicenza) that brings us closer to the art of the forty-year-old Vicenza native Diego Soldà. It is very difficult to describe this superb project entitled “Geology of Painting”, in which pieces and trunks of wood are literally blown into the infinite internal layers of tempera by the artist, who thus manages to create, in very long periods of time of compulsive miniaturism, natural forms of exceptional conceptual emotion. Thanks to the temperament and practice of a rigorous scientist, the final work is eventually monochrome only on the surface, to then show the kaleidoscopic soul when the section is seen.
Antonio Scaccabarozzi, “Prevalences 1 of 3 three reds + three tones”, courtesy of Galleria Clivio
Antonio Scaccabarozzi is an unmissable confirmation, of which the Parma gallery Clivio proposes a more geometric and spatial thematic series than usual. “Prevalenze” is the project of the artist from Lecco-Brianza, composed of points, sometimes monochrome sometimes colored, arranged on the space of the canvas or the board in a rigorous and perfect mathematical order. The result is very poetic for the eyes, as well as evocative of Scaccabarozzi’s ability to give shape to the point.
M77 Gallery booth at Arte Fiera 2025
The tenth and last artist is also a historicized painter: Tino Stefanoni, from Lecco (city), proposed by the Milanese M77. A few pieces in a collective exhibition are enough to warm the attention, in particular the “Sinopie”, these minimalist traces on canvas that recall the essence of art, almost its place where everything originated and therefore art returns to its original form, a few stripes on the surface, visual art devoid of time.
Info:
I am Giovanni Crotti, born in 1968, and I feel obliged to thank writing because it drives my life. I cultivate within me multitudes that lead me to investigate, know, and deepen every cultural and creative expression, and then write about it, always trying to be clear and documented in the contents.
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