How should we respond to the challenges in a field – both expanding and transformed – such as contemporary art? Why should we choose to produce and curate Art today?

The Area responds to the current, global proliferation of biennials, museums and artistic institutions not only with a broad spectrum of experimental practices and new media, but also with a multiplication of new professional roles to be leant.

By means of the various Degree Programmes, the Area’s offers add the exhibition curator, the art critic, the publishing editor, the museum curator, the film festival curator, the commercial gallery and private collection manager and the art consultant, to the historic and primary figure of the artist.

Contemporary art is not seen as a single discipline but, rather, as a methodology that permits interdisciplinary and cross-cultural – ecology, gender, the archive, the post-colonial – approaches, beginning with an in-depth investigation into the aesthetic, social and economic contexts within which the new artistic subject works, opening himself up to the challenges of the future.

Which path to take?

Bachelor of Arts in

Painting and Visual Arts

The BA explores the transformations of contemporary art practices, connecting art with the production and social contexts and enabling students to experiment with a variety of environments, techniques and methods, reinterpreting and expanding the traditional academic approach.

Master of Arts in

Visual Arts and Curatorial Studies

Founded in 2006, the MA combines a solid training in the artistic production with a specialised curatorial practice, exploring the relationship among art, visual culture, aesthetics, and social dynamics to produce new training and operating models in the international contemporary art system.

Academic Master in

Contemporary Art Markets

The Master provides the students with the most effective tools to interpret the art market structures and dynamics, with a particular focus on contemporary artistic languages, and provides study trips to Artissima in Turin and Art Basel, the sector’s most important fairs.

Academic Master in

Photography and Visual Design

The Master prepares the students for their entrance into the world of photography, arts, and national and international communication, aiming to train groundbreaking professionals in contemporary photography: photographers, curators and editors.

Academic Master in

Art and Ecology

The Master provides the students with a cross-disciplinary methodological approach as well as the needed tools to fulfil the most urgent issues related to landscape, environmental protection, biodiversity and sustainability, by connecting artistic creativity, design practice and scientific knowledge.

Our Faculty

Visual Arts Department Head

Marco Scotini

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Visual Arts Department Head

Marco Scotini

Marco Scotini is the Artistic Director of the FM Centre for Contemporary Art, Milan, and Head of the Exhibitions Programme at PAV, Parco Arte Vivente, Turin. He is the Scientific Director of the Archivio Gianni Colombo and the Bert Theis Archive. He has been a member of the Italian Council since 2019. He has been Visual Arts Department Head since 2004. After many collaborations with international artistic institutions (Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Documenta, Kassel, MAXXI, Rome, SALT, Istanbul, Castello di Rivoli), he curated the Albanian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale (2015), co-curated the 1st Anren Biennale (2017) and he has been the Artistic Director of the 2nd Yinchuan Biennale in China (2018). Among his most recent publications: Utopian Display. Geopolitical Curating (Quodlibet NABA Insights, 2019), Politiques de la Végétation (Eterotopia France, 2019), Artecrazia (DeriveApprodi, 2017).

Bachelor of Arts in Painting and Visual Arts Course Leader

Andris Brinkmanis

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Bachelor of Arts in Painting and Visual Arts Course Leader

Andris Brinkmanis

Andris Brinkmanis is an art critic and curator of Latvian origin, based in Milan and Venice. He has collaborated with magazines and publications such as Il Corriere della Sera, Alfabeta2, Arte e Critica, Flash Art International, Studija, and he is the International Editor of the bookzine No Order. Art in a Post-Fordist Society. From 2007 to 2013 he was commissioner and co-curator of Latvia, Estonia and Central Asia Pavilions at the Venice Biennale. Among the most recent projects, he was part of the curatorial team of Documenta 14 (2017), 2nd Yinchuan Biennale (2018) and has curated Infancy and History at the OCAT Institute, Beijing (2019). Lecturer in NABA since 2009, he has been Course Leader of the BA in Painting and Visual Arts since 2013. His research focuses on alternative education and the relationship between education and visual culture.

Academic Master in Contemporary Art Markets Course Leader

Cristina Masturzo

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Academic Master in Contemporary Art Markets Course Leader

Cristina Masturzo

An art historian and critic, Cristina Masturzo is specialised in contemporary art market, and she works as a professor and freelance writer. Since 2017 she has been teaching Art Economy and Market and Valorization of Collections at the Academic Master in Contemporary Art Markets of NABA, Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti, Milano. She has been visiting lecturer from 2022 to 2024at Istituto Marangoni in Florence in the mayor of Marketing, Art market and Communication. Since 2018 she is Chief Editor of the art market area at Artribune Magazine, where she also launched in 2023 the weekly newsletter “Incanti”. In 2020 she has been among the coordinators of Forum dell'arte contemporanea italiana. She currently collaborates with the Visual Arts Department of NABA and she is working as a freelance on indipendent research projects about the art system. Her texts are included in magazines, volumes and catalogues.

Academic Master in Photography and Visual Design Course Leader

Francesco Zanot

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Academic Master in Photography and Visual Design Course Leader

Francesco Zanot

A photography critic and curator, he curated exhibitions and monographies of artists such as Mark Cohen, Guido Guidi, Olivo Barbieri, Takashi Homma, Linda Fregni Nagler, Boris Mikhailov, Francesco Jodice, and many others. Among his most recent publications are catalogues about th work by Luigi Ghirri, Alec Soth and Erik Kessels. The curator of CAMERA Centro Italiano per la Fotografia, from 2015 through 2017, he has participated in conferences and seminars in numerous Italian and international institutions, including Columbia University in New York. An associate editor of Fantom, a curatorial platform, he has recently curated the exhibition Give Me Yesterday and Questioning Pictures. Stefano Graziani at the Fondazione Prada Osservatorio. He is the Artistic Director of Foto/Industria, the Biennial of Photography on Industry and Work at Fondazione MAST, Bologna.

Bachelor of Arts in Painting and Visual Arts Course Leader and Masters of Arts in Visual Arts and Curatorial Studies Course Leader - Rome

Caterina Iaquinta

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Bachelor of Arts in Painting and Visual Arts Course Leader and Masters of Arts in Visual Arts and Curatorial Studies Course Leader - Rome

Caterina Iaquinta

She has a PhD in Contemporary Art History from the Catholic University, Milan, focused on the analysis of performative practices in the artistic field with reference to the role of women artists and gender approach. Since 2012 she has been a professor of Modern and Contemporary Art History at NABA. She has held courses at the Catholic University, Brescia; seminars at the Sapienza University; Universities of Ferrara, Turin and Bari; at Artistic Institutions such as Palazzo Reale, MACRO, FMCCA. She has published essays with Routledge, Franco Angeli, Postmediabooks, research papers with Palinsesti and Comunicazioni Sociali and collaborates with Arte e Critica, Titolo, Opera Viva, Espoarte, Telescope. She is currently Course Leader of the BA in Painting and Visual Arts and of the MA in Visual Arts and Curatorial Studies at NABA Campus in Rome.

Academic Master in Art and Ecology Course Leader

Gabriele Sassone

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Academic Master in Art and Ecology Course Leader

Gabriele Sassone

Gabriele Sassone teaches Critical Writing and History of contemporary art at NABA, Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti, Milan Campus. He collaborates with the Department of Sociology and Social Research of the University of Milan-Bicocca and is Cultural Advisor for the Foundation Matera-Basilicata 2019. He writes regularly for the newspaper Il Foglio and several cultural magazines such as Rivista Studio and Camera Austria. With his first novel, Uccidi l'unicorno (Il Saggiatore 2020), he won the XXVIII edition of the Giuseppe Berto Literary Prize.

Alumni Stories

Visual Artist and Curator - Fondazione Prada

EDOARDO MANZONI

Visual Arts

«In NABA I have had the opportunity to develop and define my artistic research, experimenting with any means of expression and establishing connections with high-level artists. Thanks to the experience I have gained, I have exhibited my works in collective and personal exhibitions in Italy and abroad».

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Master of Arts Visual Arts

EDOARDO MANZONI

Visual Artist and Curator - Fondazione Prada

«In NABA I have had the opportunity to develop and define my artistic research, experimenting with any means of expression and establishing connections with high-level artists. Thanks to the experience I have gained, I have exhibited my works in collective and personal exhibitions in Italy and abroad».