Friday, May 8, Hall 2 of CremonaFiere will host the fourth edition of Cremona Art Fair 2026, confirming its position among the most dynamic events in the Lombardy art scene. The move to the largest hall of the exhibition center marks a new phase of growth for the fair, which this year brings together 65 contemporary entities, including galleries, publishers, and institutions. This expansion strengthens the fair’s role as a platform for dialogue between local initiatives and international perspectives, supported by a redesigned layout aimed at enhancing the exhibition path and making the visitor experience more fluid, readable, and engaging.
Ahead of the opening, we interviewed the director Paolo Batoni to explore the fair’s latest developments, its growth, and its role within the Lombardy art scene.
Cremona Art Fair is now in its fourth edition. What are the main new features compared to previous years?
At its fourth edition, Cremona Art Fair 2026 enters a phase of full maturity. It grows in scale and in the quality of its program, but above all in its ability to be recognized as an increasingly authoritative event within the Italian art scene. With a growing حضور of collectors, professionals, and new audiences, the fair consolidates a clear vocation: to be an accessible space capable of bringing together research and market.
Among the main developments is a stronger presence of international galleries, enhancing its global profile and expanding opportunities for discovery. In this direction, the collaboration with ARA – Art Run Agency for the VIP Programme plays a key role, fostering the participation of international collectors and professionals through dedicated itineraries and networking opportunities with galleries and institutions.
The Public Programme is also expanding. Advisor on Demand is designed to introduce new generations to collecting, offering free консультации and guided tours with advisors and curators under 35. Stanza d’ascolto, curated by Michele Lombardelli, presents a space dedicated to sound as an artistic language, in dialogue with the city’s musical identity. These initiatives are complemented by the Premio Prospettive and a programme of talks that transforms the editorial section into a platform for discussion.
More than individual additions, this represents a shift in scale: Cremona Art Fair increasingly takes shape as a cultural device capable of building relationships and offering tools for interpretation.
How is the role of the fair evolving within the art landscape?
Cremona Art Fair is defining itself as a platform that brings together market, research, and cultural production. At a regional level, it fits into an already structured system, distinguishing itself through its focus on the quality of both experience and content. At a national level, the aim is to engage with emerging dynamics and activate relationships that extend beyond the days of the fair. Its international dimension further strengthens this positioning, connecting the local context with broader networks.
What are the main challenges for an art fair today?
In an increasingly competitive context, the challenge is to avoid reducing the fair to a replicable format or a purely commercial device. It is essential to build a recognizable project, capable of producing content and offering tools for orientation.
A central issue is audience development: it is not enough to attract visitors, but to foster a new literacy of the contemporary. Projects such as Advisor on Demand and Stanza d’ascolto move in this direction, introducing more conscious and accessible modes of engagement.
How was the gallery selection structured?
The selection was developed according to criteria of quality and coherence, considering the fair as a unified system. We worked to create a dialogue between established galleries and younger realities, with a stronger international openness.
The aim is not to represent the market in a neutral way, but to construct a proposal with its own curatorial consistency, where each participant engages meaningfully with the overall context.
What trends emerge from the Art Projects section?
Art Projects continues to be a space dedicated to research, with a growing openness to hybrid languages.
The focus on painting is confirmed, reinterpreted through a contemporary lens, but there is also a strong presence of practices that move across different media. In this sense, Stanza d’ascolto introduces a significant element, bringing sound into the exhibition path and expanding the modes of engagement. Rather than a single trend, what emerges is a plurality of approaches that reflects a phase of great openness.
What role do the artist’s book and independent publishing play today?
The artist’s book represents a privileged space for experimentation, where artistic practice and the editorial dimension come together. Within the fair, this area is also developed through the Talks, which transform the presentation of editorial projects into a moment of dialogue.
Independent publishing, in particular, has the ability to open up spaces of freedom and activate exchanges between different realities, strengthening the discursive dimension of the fair.
What dynamics do you observe in the Italian art market?
The Italian market continues to move within a complex context and remains marginal compared to the major international hubs, but this very condition also opens up interesting possibilities. There is growing attention towards emerging artists, less inflated segments, and more conscious forms of collecting.
What seems to be changing above all is the way people approach art: there is greater curiosity, more attention to research, and an increasing need for orientation. In this sense, projects such as Advisor on Demand respond to a real need: accompanying new collectors and making more accessible a system that otherwise risks remaining opaque.
More broadly, the challenge is to transform the fair into a space that not only intercepts the market, but also helps shape its trajectories.
What role will new technologies play?
Digital technology is now a structural component, but the focus is on integrating the physical experience with online tools. The digital platform expands visibility, while the Public Programme introduces slower and more conscious modes of engagement. The aim is to build a balance between these dimensions.
If you had to describe Cremona Art Fair 2026 in three words?
Awareness, relationship, vision.
