The Max Mara Art Prize for Women, a prestigious biennial award supporting women-identifying artists, celebrates its 20th anniversary this year – and this landmark occasion is marked with an art-filled celebration in Florence. In partnership with the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi, the milestone has been celebrated with a special exhibition titled Time for Women! Empowering Visions, running from 17 April to 31 August 2025.
Held at the historic Palazzo Strozzi, the show will bring together the works of all nine past winners – including Helen Cammock and Laure Prouvost – for the first time in a single space. The result is a powerful, collective exploration of womanhood.
All the artists focused on deeply personal themes, including identity, memory, the body, society, and politics and offered, according to Sara Piccinini, the director of Collezione Maramotti, which houses the Max Mara founder Achille Maramotti's private contemporary art collection, “a non-stereotypical vision of the feminine and of ‘feminine’ art.”
“[The work was] based on their personal interests and individual experiences which were already a clear and intrinsic part of the project proposals that won them the Prize,” she said.
The exhibition, which includes video installations, sculpture and wall art, gives a unique glimpse into the early endeavours of these artists, displaying work they created before they gained wider recognition.
Each winner was selected by an all-female jury of prominent figures in the art world and awarded a six-month residency in Italy, tailored to support both the personal and professional growth of the artists. The experience then culminated in a two-stage exhibition at Whitechapel Gallery in London and Collezione Maramotti in Reggio Emilia.
Founded in 2005, the Max Mara Art Prize for Women was the first visual arts award dedicated to emerging women artists based in the UK, with the goal of supporting and promoting their work at a pivotal moment in their careers.
The prize has been a springboard for many artists at the beginning of their careers, such as Margaret Salmon, Emma Talbot and Dominique White, many of whom have since become influential figures in contemporary art.
Piccinini notes that the exhibition’s greatest strength lies in the creative freedom it celebrates: “We particularly hope that many young people will come to the show and encounter the energy, ideas, vulnerabilities, and visions of these artists.”
