‘Time for Women!’: 20 Years of the Max Mara Art Prize for Women

The Max Mara Art Prize for Women has been empowering female and female-identifying artists with a platform for experimentation and career growth for two decades. Its anniversary and legacy are being celebrated in an exhibition at Palazzo Strozzi in Florence.

By Alexia Petsinis May 2025

 

Image credit: Emma Talbot, The Age/ L’Età, Installation view, Time for Women! Empowering Visions in 20 Years of the Max Mara Art Prize for Women, Florence, Italy, 2025. [Photo: Ela Bialkowska, OKNO Studio].

 

There have been nine winners of the Max Mara Art Prize for Women over its 20-year history, and each of them has enriched the award’s legacy with journeys of discovery, engagement, and artistic development. Time for Women! Empowering Visions in 20 Years of the Max Mara Art Prize for Women showcases the nine artists’ projects in an exhibition now on view at Florence’s Palazzo Strozzi, presented in collaboration with Collezione Maramotti. The residency-based prize, supported by Whitechapel Gallery, has facilitated a contemporary ‘Grand Tour’ of Italy for each winning artist, in which opportunities for research, travel, exploration, and access to resources across the country have inspired intricate artistic projects.

Image credit: Helen Cammock, Che si puo fare, Installation view, Time for Women! Empowering Visions in 20 Years of the Max Mara Art Prize for Women, Florence, Italy, 2025. [Photo: Ela Bialkowska, OKNO Studio].

 

Displayed together for the first time inside Strozzina (Palazzo Strozzi’s exhibition space below ground level), the biennial prize winners’ projects span installations, sculptures, wall works, and videos. Each curated in a designated room or area, they inform an intimate viewing experience reflecting diverse artistic perspectives and experiences. Viewers, therefore, embark on their own ‘Grand Tour’ through the exhibition, reflecting on the prize’s legacy and how it has nurtured the development of artistic visions and careers. We encounter The Age/ L’Età, an installation by Emma Talbot (eighth edition), a sculpture from Dominique White’s Deadweight series (ninth edition), a video work created by Helen Cammock titled Che si puo fare (seventh edition), Corinne Sworn’s installation Silent Sticks (fifth edition), Margaret Salmon’s video work Ninna Nanna (first edition), Mamma Mia!, a corridor-long installation by Emma Hart (sixth edition), Laure Prouvost’s video work as part of Farfromwords: car mirrors eat raspberries when swimming through the sun, to swallow sweet smells (fourth edition), Andrea Büttner’s mixed-media work The Poverty of Riches (third edition), and a video work by Hannah Ricards titled No, there was no red. (second edition). From commedia dell’arte to monastic culture, from the pleasures of nature to threads of memory, the diverse themes and media explored in each project create a universal and compelling sense of relevance.

“Over the centuries, Florence has been one of the capitals of the Grand Tour, and this prize was originally developed with the idea of an Italian residency that would offer the winners a modern-day ‘Grand Tour’. Almost all the winning artists visited Florence during their residency, and it is important for us to now share their projects with Palazzo Strozzi and the public who visit,” said Sara Piccinini, Director of Collezione Maramotti.

Image credit: Emma Hart, Mamma Mia!, Installation view, Time for Women! Empowering Visions in 20 Years of the Max Mara Art Prize for Women, Florence, Italy, 2025. [Photo: Ela Bialkowska, OKNO Studio].

“The collaboration with Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi for this exhibition is perfectly aligned with the mission of the Max Mara Art Prize for Women; it is an ideal partner given its enduring commitment to supporting female artistic research,” Piccinini added.

Image credit: Corine Sworn, Silent Sticks, Installation view, Time for Women! Empowering Visions in 20 Years of the Max Mara Art Prize for Women, Florence, Italy, 2025. [Photo: Ela Bialkowska, OKNO Studio].

Time, resources, and Italy; an ideal trinity to ignite the artistic process, it seems. Emma Talbot’s The Age/L’Eta was inspired by Gustav Klimt’s painting The Three Ages of Women (1905), which she saw in Rome’s Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea. The artist recast the painting’s narrative and protagonist in her installation, which comprises walls lined with gestural markings and animations, painted hanging silk panels, and a three-dimensional sculpture. Inaugural prize winner Margaret Salmon’s video triptych Ninna Nanna is based on an old Tuscan lullaby. Shot in 16mm film, the work captures young Italian mothers nursing their children as they meet the realities and demands of daily life with poise and tenacity. Inspired by the characters and narratives of commedia dell’arte, Corinne Sworn’s installation Silent Sticks reimagines cultural and theatrical traditions through ideas of costume, identity, and gender inversions. The nine artists’ projects offer new and multifaceted perspectives on Italy through their engagement with culture, landscapes, traditions, mentors, and stories, inviting viewers to discover, or re-discover, aspects of the country that are not always evident.

 

Image credit: Dominique White, Deadweight, Installation view, Time for Women! Empowering Visions in 20 Years of the Max Mara Art Prize for Women, Florence, Italy, 2025. [Photo: Ela Bialkowska, OKNO Studio].

 

“The connection between this prize and Italy is very important. It is based on a real residency; the artists came to Italy and spent a month here, immersed in our culture and way of life, and you can see this connection in their projects. Many of the works reference Italian artisanal techniques, skills, and folkloric traditions. I think this is a very important feature of the Max Mara Art Prize for Women. At Palazzo Strozzi, we believe that Italy has a strong potential to inspire contemporary creativity, so to have the award winners come to Italy to create these works is very important,” said Arturo Galansino, General Director of Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi.

Since its inauguration in 2005, the Max Mara Art Prize for Women has evolved to earn widespread recognition as one of the most influential platforms for nurturing the careers of UK-based female and female-identifying emerging artists. Previous winners – most of whom were present at Palazzo Strozzi’s opening event for the exhibition – are now considered renowned names in the international art scene. The prize no doubt marks a catalyst in their careers, and Italy, the country where it all transpired, endures as a fountain of formal and thematic inspiration.

Image credit: Palazzo Strozzi Opening Event photo by Sara Sassi, OKNO Studio.

 

Time for Women! Empowering Visions in 20 Years of the Max Mara Art Prize for Women runs from April 17 to August 31 at Palazzo Strozzi, Florence.
The exhibition is supported by Max Mara.
https://www.palazzostrozzi.org/en/archivio/exhibitions/time-for-women/
https://www.collezionemaramotti.org/
https://www.whitechapelgallery.org/