WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to be returning to Miart 2026, taking place in Milan from 16th – 19th of April 2026. This year, the gallery’s main presentation features new works by Cathy Abraham, Mia Chaplin, Michelle Czarnecki, Michele Mathison and Dale Lawrence. 

WHATIFTHEWORLD proposes a focused presentation for MiArt 2026 featuring works by Cathy Abraham, Mia Chaplin, Dale Lawrence, Michelle Czarnecki and Michele Mathison. Together, these artists represent the gallery’s commitment to contemporary practices from Southern Africa. Their work addresses memory, labour, material history and the links between personal experience and broader social and ecological contexts.

The exhibition considers connection as something that shifts and evolves. It is explored through relationships between land and body, past and present, self and other. Rather than aiming for spectacle, the presentation turns to rhythm, repetition, fracture and care. Each artist works with materials that hold meaning, from weaving and gilding to pigment and textiles.

Cathy Abraham’s paintings are built through layered marks and slow gestures. Her work suggests that recovery and reflection are gradual processes shaped by time, breath and quiet observation. She holds space between pain and renewal without seeking resolution.

Mia Chaplin works through expressive painting and sculpture to explore intimacy, sensuality and the female body, where blurred forms and fractured surfaces hold tenderness.

Michelle Czarnecki’s material practice is shaped by repetition and accumulation, using cotton and ink to build surfaces that move between precision and entropy, evoking organic transformation.

Michele Mathison works through sculpture and installation to draw attention to labour, migration and material residue, transforming familiar objects into forms that speak to movement, value and the social conditions of Southern Africa.

Dale Lawrence treats surface as a site of focused labour. Through gilding, engraving, painting and carefully repeated actions, his work becomes a record of time, discipline and attention. Each mark speaks to persistence and restraint.

Through these practices, the presentation becomes a reflection on fragility and endurance. It asks how history is held within materials, how identities move through generations and how art can make visible what is often overlooked. For MiArt 2026, WHATIFTHEWORLD proposes a booth that functions not only as an exhibition space but as a site of care, attention and connection.

Miart 2026

Allianz Mico, Milano Convention Centre

16 – 19 April 2026

Booth: A04

For catalogue requests, please email Eleonora here