ABOUT
The Max Mara Art Prize for Women, founded by Max Mara in 2005, is a biennial prize that is one-of-a-kind in the field of visual arts.
Conceived to spotlight and support emerging or mid-career woman-identifying artists, the award is nomadic and has a highly international outlook.
Each edition focuses on a different country around the world, selecting a prestigious local institution as its partner and singling out a shortlist of resident artists from whom the winner is chosen.
The residency: a journey of exploration around Italy and a new project
The prize is aimed at promoting and supporting women artists at a crucial stage in their career; it offers the opportunity and resources for them to create an ambitious new project developed in relation to the broader context of Italy – its art, artisanry, landscape, history and society.
Based on the winning artist’s personal and creative needs, Collezione Maramotti organizes a travelling six-month residency for her in Italy, with specialized advisors to guide and assist her in every stage of research.
At the end of her residency, the artist completes and exhibits her project in a solo exhibition presented at the partner institution and at Collezione Maramotti, which then goes on to acquire the works and round out the cycle of support.
The selection process
For each edition, Max Mara, Collezione Maramotti and Cecilia Alemani, curator of the prize and chair of the jury, determine the country and partner institution.
Alemani assembles a jury made up of the partner institution’s director or curator, a gallerist, an art critic, an artist and a collector who all work in the chosen country.
The jury then decides on a shortlist of five finalists and invites them to submit a project proposal, evaluating the strength and impact of each one in order to select the winner.
A new nomadic era
After twenty years of fruitful collaboration (2005‒2025) with Whitechapel Gallery in London, in which it centred on the British art scene, the Max Mara Art Prize for Women will now expand its global reach and become nomadic, starting with its tenth edition in 2026.
The prize will continue to make a fundamental contribution to achieving truly equal opportunity for female artists; at the same time, it will build bridges to other parts of the world, fostering creative diversity and offering inspiration and positive models to new generations of women.
Recognition
In recognition of the Max Mara Art Prize for Women’s exceptional role in celebrating and supporting the creative process of female artists, it was singled out for the British Council Arts & Business International Award in 2007.