As summer comes to an end, openings, themed weeks and a growing exhibition programme return to Milan. Here’s what to put on your calendar in Brera and its surroundings this September.
Milano Beauty Week
When: September 16–20, 2026
The fifth edition of the initiative by Cosmetica Italia, in collaboration with Cosmoprof and Esxence. The theme for 2026 is essentiality: five days exploring the authentic value of cosmetics in everyday life, from skin health and innovation to olfactory culture, sustainability and inclusion. The event extends across the city through the Beauty Cubes, temporary experiential installations.
Floralia – Autumn Edition
Where: Piazza San Marco, 2
When: September 26–27, 2026
Milan’s chicest charity market dedicated to horticulture returns to Brera for its autumn edition. More than ninety selected exhibitors bring rare plants, craftsmanship, garden furniture and handmade creations to Piazza San Marco, set against the intimate greenery of the churchyard and sixteenth-century cloisters. Proceeds support the projects of Centro di Solidarietà San Marco Onlus.
Milano Fashion Week
When: September 22–28, 2026
Milan’s Fashion Week returns with the Spring/Summer 2027 collections. For seven days, the Brera district, with its showrooms, galleries and private spaces, becomes one of the key hubs of the international fashion calendar, with special openings, institutional events and the usual creative energy that transforms every corner of the district.
EXHIBITIONS
Chiara Gambirasio. Chasing Rainbows
Where: BUILDING
When: September 10–October 10, 2026
What began as a “rainbow hunt” evolved into a journey of inner listening. The white of snow changed Chiara Gambirasio’s direction, leading her to explore her emotional depths rather than pursue an elusive visual sign. Thermochromic and photochromic sculptures respond to light and the heat of visitors’ bodies, transforming the exhibition space into a living, constantly changing perceptual field.
Carlo Forcolini. Senza titolo: LIFE
Where: ADI Design Museum
When: September 3–24, 2026
The first exhibition dedicated to Carlo Forcolini traces the multifaceted career of the Milanese designer through objects, documents, writings and testimonies. Art, entrepreneurship, education and civic engagement come together in a practice where life and work were never separate. Rather than following a chronological approach, the exhibition highlights the connections, encounters and experiences that shaped a long and coherent career.
Giorgio A. Riva. Info-Grafie
Where: Galleria Antonio Battaglia
When: September 10–26, 2026
A solo exhibition by Giorgio A. Riva centred on a series of numbered digital prints generated through the interplay of spreadsheets, vector files and Cartesian grids. It is precisely the transition between different patterns and structures that creates the intricate spaces of his compositions, crossed by a light that rises from the background and moves throughout them. The project transforms digital data into painterly form, resulting in a highly distinctive and consistent visual language.
Chiara Sibilla. LaLaLaLaLaLaLa identity test
Where: Amy-D Arte Spazio
When: September 9–20, 2026
Chiara Sibilla’s first solo exhibition explores the relationship between visual art, music and new technologies through installations, acoustic environments and collaborative performances. At its core is the transformation of sound and listening as tools for expression, awareness and connection. The project also introduces Stanze di ascolto (Listening Rooms), a participatory experience in which art becomes an active practice capable of creating relationships and shifting established balances.
Valeria Canavesi. Sono solo parole
Where: Archivio Rachele Bianchi
When: September 17–October 11, 2026
The eleventh edition of Rete Aperta, the series through which Archivio Rachele Bianchi presents contemporary female artists in dialogue with the legacy of the Milanese sculptor. This edition features a solo exhibition by Valeria Canavesi, curated by Giorgio Uberti, exploring language as a raw material: words not simply as vehicles of meaning, but as objects, surfaces and presences with a weight of their own.
ARTNOVATION – Echoes of Renaissance in the Hues of Africa
Where: Fondazione Luciana Matalon
When: September 16–29, 2026
The exhibition brings African art into dialogue with the Italian Renaissance through painting, installations, mixed media and fashion. The project explores memory, identity, migration and cultural exchange, bringing together established and emerging Nigerian artists. Creativity becomes a bridge between Africa and Europe, fostering dialogue, collaboration and new connections across cultures and disciplines.
