Arte Fiera in Bologna

A few weeks ago we went to Bologna, the capital city of Emilia-Romagna to visit the 32nd edition of Arte Fiera Art First: a BIG international exhibition of modern and contemporary art. It looked similar to the Toronto International Art Fair, where instead of featuring the top Canadian and International galleries and artists, Arte Fiera featured the top Italian and International artists and galleries and in also a much larger scale… really BIG.

Arte Fiera also held there own version of our Nuiet Blank titled Art White Night… music concerts, exhibitions, museum and gallery openings held till midnight throughout various locations in the historical city centre of Bolgona. Here are a few pictures I took of some of the artwork I saw at the fair…

I really liked this work by American artist Jacob Hashimoto. This piece like many of his other pieces are created by designing and constructing thousands of small circle-shaped kites and installing them so that they recede in space… as if they are flowing in this air. The second picture is a work by Italian artist David Reimondo. I knew I wasn’t imagining this… he creates his pieces by slicing bread and imbedding them in resin. Geniuses!

This picture to the right is a work by German artist Rebecca Horn. She combines installation, sculpture, performance and video in her work. Although I’m not too interested in her other pieces, there is something about this piece I like so much.


Some of the most popular artists at the fair were British artist Jason Martin, and Italian artists Lucio Fontano and Alighiero Boetti… they were represented by many galleries… their work was everywhere I turned.

Elisabeth once introduced me to work by artist Minjung Kim whose work was also at the fair. You’d think that this piece is painted, when in fact it’s paper collaged… beautiful. Here is also picture of someone looking closely at a work by Italian artist Nicola Samori.


I was glad to see so many paintings. Seven hours of walking, looking, appreciating, and discussing most of the art there was to see… exhausted, overwhelmed, but very much inspired by the end of the day.