You founded the Prisma Art Prize in 2019 with Il Varco Creative Hub. What was the initial vision that drove you to create this prize, and how has it evolved over the past six years?
The Prisma Art Prize was born from a need for community: I wanted to meet artists, see how they work, understand how they use painting in cultural contexts different from my own. In 2019, when we founded the prize, I felt the need to create a space for dialogue and discovery.
Today, the prize’s objective is twofold: on one hand, to create career opportunities for emerging artists through cash prizes, publications, group and solo exhibitions, and residencies in Italy and abroad. On the other, to disseminate contemporary art through exhibitions and collateral events to develop the industry and attract resources to the sector.
Being both an artist and the artistic director of a prize, you occupy a unique position. How does your personal practice as a visual artist inform your approach to selecting and supporting emerging artists?
Being an artist gives me a particular perspective: I know the vulnerability of submitting one’s work to the judgment of others, I know what it means to wait for a response, to hope to be seen. This awareness makes me more attentive not only to the work, but to the process behind it.
Regarding my selection approach, I try not to limit myself to my personal taste and I don’t seek to value only works that respect my taste, but I’m also looking for visions that contrast with my own. Being the artistic director of the Prisma Art Prize is a privilege for me: I have a constant eye on emerging contemporary production and this continuously challenges and feeds my practice.
These are two roles that intertwine and nourish each other, preventing me from settling, neither for what I produce, nor for what I see.
The Prisma Art Prize has maintained a media focus, excluding sculptures and digital works. Why is this focus important to you?
It’s a radical choice that has accompanied the prize since its inception: focusing on two-dimensional wall-hanging works allows us to provide a more defined overview of the state of art.
We accept any type of work that has a traditional manual intervention and that can be hung on a wall, including ceramics, multimedia, textile or photography, as long as they meet these two requirements.
The choice to limit ourselves to wall-hanging works derives from the competitive nature of the prize: how can I compare a video with a painting? A sculpture with a drawing? Creating a single category allows us to evaluate works in a more fair and coherent way, building a dialogue between works that share the same spatial language.
We only accept works that have a traditional intervention because we want to value the craftsmanship behind art, because it is directly connected to human experience. There is an intimate relationship between gesture, material and surface that I believe is fundamental to preserve.
The Prisma Art Prize has built an international community, with 80% of participants coming from abroad. How do you manage this global dimension and what does it mean to you to create bridges between artists from different cultures?
Creating bridges between artists from different cultures means doing good for art and the world. Cultural mixing creates inspiration and gives life to new forms, and the relationships created within our community innovate a landscape that, although it seems mobile and avant-garde, is actually full of tensions, envy and imitation. I think it’s fundamentally important today for an emerging artist to see how other artists operate on the other side of the world, understand how they make their practice sustainable and share their experience.
The main difficulty is reaching artistic communities far from the Western industry to have the opportunity to present different stories and sensibilities. We are particularly interested in reaching artists from the global south, who refer to markets different from ours.
From your point of view, what trends do you see emerging in contemporary painting and drawing? Are there specific themes or approaches that you believe will define the next generation of artists?
I’m certainly witnessing a strong return to figuration, but not in a nostalgic or academic sense. Young artists use the figure to explore the urgent issues of our time. There’s also a fascinating tension between digital and analog, with many artists incorporating digital processes and aesthetics into traditional or abstract painting, creating visual hybrids that reflect our contemporary experience.
However, it’s not so much in stylistic issues that I see the most significant trends, but rather in thematic ones. The works I find most interesting and authentic are those that are intimate and personal, works that, whether abstract or figurative, speak of emotions and feelings. There’s a turn toward interiority and self-narrative, which contrasts with the prevalence of overtly political or conceptual works that characterized previous generations and that seem increasingly rare in the international emerging landscape.
This trend has an evident parallel in younger generations’ strong interest in psychology and spirituality. My generation is more attentive than ever to mental health and self-care. Art thus becomes a space for personal elaboration and inner research. Many works address precisely the fragility of bodies and identities, exploring themes such as loneliness, anxiety, trauma, transformation.
Alongside this seriousness, there’s a conscious refusal to be purely didactic or political. I prefer artists who understand that complexity and contradiction are the most fertile ground for the most interesting works, and that art doesn’t necessarily have to offer answers but can simply create emotional resonances.
How do you define “success” for an artist participating in the Prisma Art Prize? What impact do you hope the prize has on their careers?
I think success for an emerging artist is defined first and foremost in the ability to carry forward an independent and sustainable practice over time, without having to make commercial compromises that betray one’s vision. It means being able to live the life one wants to live, keeping artistic integrity at the center of one’s path.
What I sincerely wish for an emerging artist is to resist external pressures. My hope is that they cultivate their practice in an intimate and independent way, that they have the courage to explore personal territories even when they are not immediately comprehensible.
With the Prisma Art Prize, I hope to offer a space where artists can feel valued for their authenticity, not for their ability to adapt to the trends of the moment. Through cash prizes, exhibition opportunities, residencies and publications, we want to provide concrete tools that allow artists to sustain their practice. I want the prize to be a point of reference for those who still believe in the sincerity of artistic research.
If we manage to give confidence and visibility to these artists, contributing even in a small part to the sustainability of their practice, then the prize will have achieved its purpose.
What advice would you give to emerging artists who are considering applying to the Prisma Art Prize or similar competitions?
It’s essential not to be distracted by external pressures and the apparent success of others. Everyone has their own path and their own timing and must focus on their own research, voice, and expressive needs.
There’s another aspect that has been fundamental for me: thinking of an artistic career as a collective experience, not a solitary one. Abandoning envy and toxic competition. Asking for advice, comparing notes, sharing experiences and difficulties. Helping others on their path. What you give always comes back, in often unexpected forms. The artistic community is stronger when we support each other, when we create support networks instead of seeing ourselves as rivals.
Prizes and competitions can be useful, but they are not the only objective. They are moments of visibility and dialogue, not the measure of your value. True success lies in the ability to carry forward one’s practice with authenticity and continuity.
