Arte Fiera, closes the 2025 edition. First budgets and awards

Arte Fiera reaches the conclusion of the2025 edition, drawing an initial balance and anticipating some new features for next year. Since the opening day, positive signs have been evident: the selection proposed by the 176 exhibiting galleries has been appreciated by the sector operators, but the turnout on the days when the fair was open to the public was also significant: a few hours before closing, attendance reached 50,000.

Attention on social media increased significantly, both in number of followers and level of engagement. Great success also for the Book Talk meetings, dedicated to the relationship between art and publishing, and for the special initiatives of the public program: among them, Adelaide Cioni ’s performance at the Pavilion de l’Esprit Nouveau - realized in collaboration with Fondazione Furla as part of the live action program - and Maurizio Nannucci ’s project for the Opus Novum series, which allowed many visitors to take home a work of art: the fair shopper, conceived by the artist as an unseen multiple.

From a market point of view, Arte Fiera showed its ability to represent the variety of artistic offerings, ranging from the most accessible works-such as those belonging to multiples art-to the works of emerging artists, to masterpieces by great masters of modern and contemporary art. Sales proved encouraging from the very first day, despite a difficult general phase and the news of the non-reduction of VAT on artworks in Italy, which was announced during the very days of the fair.

This 48th edition also marks the conclusion of the artistic direction of Simone Menegoi, who has been joined for the past three years by Enea Righi in the role of operations director. In making an appointment for 2026, Arte Fiera announces its new Artistic Director: he will be Davide Ferri (Forlì, 1974), art critic and independent curator, already curator in 2019 of Arte Fiera’s special project Solo figura e sfondo and, from 2020, of the Pittura XXI section. He also teaches Museography at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna; he collaborates regularly as curator with Palazzo De’ Toschi - Banca di Bologna and the Coppola Foundation in Vicenza. Since 2012 he has been curator of the Art Section of the theater festival Hyperbody and has curated several exhibitions and projects in contemporary art galleries and museums.

“The 2025 edition of Arte Fiera,” says BolognaFiere President Gianpiero Calzolari, “has allowed us to strengthen, in an increasingly evident way, the results of work done in recent years together with Simone Menegoi, based first and foremost on the identity of the fair and the quality of its offerings. We thank Menegoi for the professionalism, seriousness and conviction with which he has held his role as Artistic Director since 2019, even going through the difficult phase of the pandemic, and overcoming it brilliantly. We thank Enea Righi for joining the revitalization project and espousing its vision, continuing to best interpret all aspects of its relationship with the collection. With great satisfaction for the goals achieved, we look forward to the 2026 edition, welcoming as future Artistic Director Davide Ferri, already part of the Arte Fiera team as curator of the ”Pittura XXI“ section. We are confident that he will be able to pick up the baton in the best possible way to face the upcoming challenges ahead.”

“I thank BolognaFiere for these seven years of working together, for the trust that has been shown to me, for supporting my choices. It has been a challenging but beautiful experience. I am proud of the results achieved, and I would like to extend the credit to all the people I have worked with, both internal to the fair and external, whose contribution has been fundamental,” these were the words of Simone Menegoi on the last day of his term. “I pass the baton to Davide Ferri, who has worked with me from the beginning, and who knows Arte Fiera and its dynamics inside out. To him goes my warmest wishes for the further growth of this great and historic event.”

“I am very happy and excited,” says future Artistic Director Davide Ferri. “I have been part of Simone Menegoi’s staff since the first year and have experienced closely the beautiful and fruitful path of his artistic direction. I thank him first. I also thank BolognaFiere, its President Gianpiero Calzolari and its CEO Antonio Bruzzone for the trust they are placing in me, the Director of Operations Enea Righi, with whom I am delighted to be able to work closely, and all the staff of Arte Fiera, whom I have already had the opportunity to get to know over the years. I inherit a strongly growing fair, and it is from this undeniable improvement that we start again. And from a special affection and bond toward Arte Fiera, given by long attendance, that I find shared among many insiders and in the public.”

Special thanks to Arte Fiera 2025 Main Partner BPER Banca, which has renewed its commitment to the event for the next three years, and to Ducati, which has confirmed its partnership again this year for the Path section of the fair.

The Awards

Seven Prizes were awarded during Arte Fiera, recognition of different forms of support for Italian art: from prizes promoted by private collections and partners, to acquisitions, to collaboration with the most prestigious national prize dedicated to painting.

The BPER Prize was awarded to Sabrina Mezzaqui, represented by Galleria Massimo Minini, for the work Lettere (2010). In addition, a special mention was given to Arianna Zama, represented by Fuocherello, for the work Rosa, like the gums of leopards (2025) and Pastorello non ti scordar di me (2023). The winning works will become part of BPER’s exhibition collections.

For the first time, the Marval Collection Prize was awarded to two artists: Sang Woo Kim, represented by Herald St, for the work The corner 015 (2024), and Wenhui Hao, represented by L.U.P.O. - Lorenzelli Projects, with the work Blue Butterfly Passage (2025). Both works will enter the Marval collection.

The Collezione Righi Prize, dedicated specifically to new generations of Italian artists, was awarded to Andrea Romano, represented by Federica Schiavo Gallery. The works Anteo, The Art of Self-Denial (2024) and Te Rerioa, Fake Flock Two (2024) will be acquired by MAMbo - Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Bologna.

The Officina Arte Ducati Prize, dedicated to the Percorso format, which this year focused on the theme “Community: not ’me,’ but ’we,’” was won by Marinella Senatore, represented by Galleria Mazzoleni, with the work There is so much we can learn from the sun (2024). The work will become part of Borgo Panigale’s corporate collection, supported by the Ducati Foundation.

The Osvaldo Licini by Fainplast Prize selected artist Sebastiano Impellizzeri, represented by Société Interludio, as one of the five finalists for the prize from among the galleries in the Painting XXI section. The award was given “for the quality of pictorial research that proposes a solid dialogue between art history and contemporary life.”

In its 13th edition, the Rotary Prize honored Studio G7 Gallery for Daniela Comani’s bold solo project entitled Perturbation #2. The installation explores the link between weather events and climate change, presenting the artist’s mother’s car destroyed by a tree blown down by the wind.

The Rotaract Award and the Andrea Sapone Award were both given to Juri Bizzotto, represented by Galleria Astuni Public Studio, for the consistency and control demonstrated in his use of different media, which allowed him to construct a mature and original narrative.

Lastly, The Collectors.Chain Prize by Art Defender, dedicated to the Photography and Moving Images section, was awarded to Leila Erdman - Tabakashvili (A Pick Gallery), a young photographer who, according to the jury, “combines the immediacy of the photographic image with the suggestions arising from the use of a word that reveals itself from time to time as poetic, ironic or dramatic,” with the works Stability.jpg (2024), ... and I run from you to you.jpg (2024) and The wind, the wind, dry their tears, let them sleep, bring tomorrow closer.jpg (2024).

Arte Fiera, closes the 2025 edition. First budgets and awards

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