ReA! Art Fair V / Milan – Opening on 12 – 15 June

The 5th Edition of ReA! Art Fair Kicks Off

From June 12 to 15, the event dedicated to emerging artists will take place at the new venue, OPOS.

Milan, June 3, 2025 – ReA! Fair, the first art fair in Italy dedicated to emerging artists without gallery or museum intermediation, returns from June 12 to 15, 2025. For its fifth edition, the fair launches a new season and a new location: the summer edition replaces the traditional autumn one and will be held at OPOS, a dynamic venue in the heart of Milan’s Certosa District. Organized by ReA! Arte, a non-profit cultural association founded by Maryna Rybakova and Pelin Zeytinci, the event is a unique opportunity to discover new voices in national and international contemporary art and serves as a meeting point between emerging artists and various actors in the contemporary art scene.

This year’s selection, curated by a scientific committee composed of curators Maria Myasnikova, Erica Massaccesi, Rita Meschiari, Valeria Conti, Milena Zanetti, and Vittoria Martinotti, presents 50 artists chosen from over 500 international applications. A key novelty of this edition is the reduction in the number of selected talents from 100 to 50, allowing the curatorial team to focus more on quality and innovation, further elevating the artistic proposal of the fair.

For the first time, the fair includes a special section dedicated to talents from the Middle East and Africa: curated by Sahar Behairy, it highlights four visual artists from the British University in Cairo (Egypt) and two creatives selected by Wasl Art Space (Saudi Arabia). These projects, rich in cultural roots and innovation, tell powerful and unique stories, offering audiences an experience of discovery and dialogue about the future of global art.

The fifth edition of ReA! Art Fair arrives at a breaking point where reality no longer follows predictable rules and perception itself is under pressure. The artists showcased here do not simply exhibit artworks: they crack the dominant gaze, unsettle inherited narratives, and disturb aesthetic comfort. They urge us to unlearn, to question, to see the world (differently).

In an era shaped by algorithmic vision, aesthetic fatigue, and the commodification of culture, what does it truly mean to see? What does it mean to choose? This year, the selected group of emerging artists addresses these questions with sharpness, courage, and subversive charm. Their practices span digital dissent, speculative fabulation, material unease, and gestures of quiet rebellion. They do not aim to reassure, but to unsettle. And it is precisely in this discomfort that new clarity arises.

“ReA has always given space to new voices. But this year it offers something more: a call for renewed sensitivity. We are not just presenting works of art — we are staging a refusal. A refusal of passivity, cultural conformity, and the leveling logic of spectacle. The fair becomes a living space of resistance and reinvention, where the poetic clashes with the political and art regains its ability to disrupt, redefine, and re-enchant,” says Maria Myasnikova, Chief Curator of ReA Arte.

This year, the ReA! Art Fair program becomes even richer and more international, with a packed calendar of awards and collaborations that span months, countries, and continents. Among the art residencies, the ViaFarini award — a historic Milanese incubator — is confirmed, joined for the first time by Lami-Genolini in Erba, an emerging platform for rising talent. On the art prize front, Artsted celebrates the fifth anniversary of its award dedicated to tech projects, while Snap Collective enters the scene offering the winner the publication of a signature artist book. Additionally, a new partnership is launched with Singulart, one of the leading online art galleries, expanding opportunities for emerging artists to reach a global audience of collectors.

The official catalog of this edition is created in collaboration with Mulieris, a women’s magazine that explores identity and challenges the boundaries of contemporary culture.

The 50 artists selected for the fifth edition of ReA! Fair are:

Kinga-Noémi Ács, ADA, Anna Andrievskaya, Daniele Antoniazzi, Diego Azzola, Erica Bardi, Adriano Bassi, Catelijne Boele, Anna Botticini, Irina Brana, Coco Brun, Carlos Castro, Paola Cenati, Cecilia Del Gatto, Jingyan Ding, David Michel Fayek, Dmitry Filimonov, Aleisha Fitz, Carla Giaccio Darias, Luca Harlacher, Jenny Hitz, Cleo Kempe Towers, Jeanna Kolesova, Ali Kulunyar, Larissa Laban, Marko Milovanovic, Jakob Mödlinger, Samira Mosca, Katya Ohii, Mariana Paku, Yicai Pan, Sofia Parma, Giulio Polloniato, Lorenzo Ramos, Guido Ravanelli, Andrea Ricklin, Graziella Romeo, Sabrina Rosenheim, Alina Samarkanova, Beatriz Santos, Martino Santori, Jeltje Schuurmans, Niya Tsenkova, Trasparente, Naomi Treistman, Marie-Charlotte Urena, Zehui Xu, Qing Yunge, Yiwen Zheng, Yunying Zhu.


ReA! Arte: A Mission for Democratic Art

ReA! Arte is a non-profit organization founded to support emerging artists and provide them with concrete visibility opportunities. Through ReA! Fair and a series of Special Projects, the association builds bridges between artists and the public, promoting accessible art free of barriers. ReA! Arte’s initiatives aim not only to strengthen the professional path of artists but also to democratize the contemporary art system, broadening its accessibility and dialogue with society.

ReA! Fair stands out for its innovative approach: in a fair environment traditionally dominated by galleries and intermediaries, ReA! Arte proposes a primary market where the public can directly connect with artists, discover their vision, and support their careers. Over the years, the fair and related projects continue to foster a dynamic and inclusive contemporary art culture, making ReA! Arte a benchmark in the Italian cultural landscape.

OPOS is an industrial building, a former electromechanical components factory brought back to life in 1990 by Alberto Zanone, whose avant-garde and community-oriented vision enabled the space to immediately embrace a plural dimension of sharing and participation. OPOS’s history spans from the worlds of design, architecture, and art to textiles and knitwear. It resists purely commercial production logics, prioritizing innovation even in abstract form, promoting research, and looking toward avant-garde and sustainable horizons.

Free entry with donation

Contacts:

ReA! Arte
www.reafair.com
@rea.fair

OPOS
www.opos.it

@opos_milano

Press Office
Valentina Gobbo Carrer

+39 338 8662116

Fair Administration
Maryna Rybakova

+39 334 3135052