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Presentation of the Special Prizes for the 17th edition of the Combat Prize 2026

Vasily Kandinsky — installation view Combat Prize 2025, Museo della Città di Livorno

Five galleries, a foundation, an independent space, a production partner, and a platform dedicated to graphic design will select one or more artists from among the 80 finalists of the Combat Prize, initiating new collaborations through exhibitions, site-specific projects, and productions, which will be realized during the 2026–2027 exhibition season, in addition to the cash prizes awarded by the jury.

Created to support new collaborations and projects between artists and promoters of contemporary art, the Special Prizes give continuity to the dialogue initiated during the Combat Prize, promoting new professional opportunities and visibility for the selected artists.

The organizations involved:

A Pick Gallery (Turin)

Candy Snake Gallery (Milan)

Labs Contemporary Art (Bologna)

Mondoromulo arte contemporanea (Castelvenere, Benevento)

Fondazione The Bank ETS – Istituto per gli Studi sulla Pittura Contemporanea (Bassano del Grappa, Vicenza)

SAC – Spazio Arte Contemporanea (Livorno)

The program is completed by the Poliart Prize, which supports the production of a sculpture/installation, and THE PLACE Prize, dedicated to the creation of an intaglio engraving in collaboration with Calcografica Petronilla and Ultracontemporary Art Project aps.

Registration closes on April 30, 2026

For info: https://www.premiocombat.it/premi-speciali

VIVA VARDA!Il cinema is female

In Bologna, a monographic exhibition dedicated to the first female director to receive an Oscar for Lifetime Achievement and winner at Cannes, Venice, Berlin, and Locarno: Agnès Varda

A 1,200-square-meter journey through the life of a unique figure in the history of cinema, art, photography, and political and cultural activism between the 20th and 21st centuries.

The first female director to receive an Oscar for Lifetime Achievement (presented to her by Angelina Jolie in 2017) and the first female director to win at Cannes, Venice, Locarno, Berlin, and San Sebastian, Agnès Varda is the focus of the exhibition Viva Varda! Cinema is Woman (curated by Florence Tissot, with artistic direction by Rosalie Varda), at the Galleria Modernissimo in Bologna from March 5, 2026, to January 10, 2027, produced by the Cineteca di Bologna and La Cinémathèque française, with institutional support from the Municipality of Bologna, the Emilia-Romagna Region, and the Ministry of Culture, in collaboration with Ciné-Tamaris, with main sponsor Gruppo Hera and sponsors Selenella and Coop Alleanza 3.0.

The exhibition: films, photos, costumes, installations. The world of Agnès Varda through photography, cinema, artistic creativity, and political commitment. And cats

Films, photos, installations, memorabilia, and costumes: Viva Varda! bears witness to a personal, creative, multifaceted body of work that embraces painting, the Nouvelle Vague, Jacques Demy, theater, cats, Fidel Castro, Jim Morrison, Jane Birkin, Catherine Deneuve, Marcello Mastroianni, Madonna, and Jean-Luc Godard.

A globetrotting artist, Varda developed a career that earned her international fame. Her work is marked by feminist commitment, which the exhibition presents in all its relevance today.

It will be divided into several sections, dedicated to the relationship between Agnès and images (self-portraiture, photography, painting, but also a taste for unexpected combinations), writing for cinema (in particular the creation of profound and surprising female characters), the social and nomadic dimension of her films (her taste for documenting the world, political upheavals, and cultural changes), and will be enriched by a section entirely dedicated to the relationship between Agnès Varda and Italy.

Castelvenere. Everything is Possible: the third edition of the collective exhibition dedicated to emerging artists at the Mondoromulo gallery

From February 21 to March 21, the Mondoromulo contemporary art gallery in Castelvenere is hosting Everything is Possible, a collective exhibition now in its third edition and a benchmark for discovering new talent on the contemporary art scene.

The exhibition brings together ten artists selected through the Possible award, an initiative created to identify emerging artists without gallery representation and offer them a concrete entry into the art system. Unlike previous editions, this year's selection took place in an unprecedented way: it was not the gallery owner who sought out the artists, but the artists who sought out Mondoromulo, with the selection entrusted to the gallery's collaborating curators and some of the artists already on staff. On display: Marina Buratti, Nicolas Crocetti, Lorenza Iacobini, Filippo Maestroni, Salvatore Palazzo, Laura Pedizzi, Elisa Pietrelli, Davide Prevosto, Vega Flux, Ewa Walkowska.

“Everything is Possible embodies the gallery's philosophy: to offer visibility to artists who do not yet have access to the official contemporary art circuits,” says gallery owner Flavio Romualdo Garofano. “Running a research gallery means making unpopular decisions, taking paths that seem impossible simply because few have the courage to take them. Mondoromulo could have been established in any city of contemporary art, but it would probably have had to limit itself to being a showcase for already popular artists, without the possibility of really investing in local and emerging talent.”

The works on display range from graphics to collages and paintings—the latter being the absolute protagonists of this edition. The collective exhibition is accompanied by three critical texts by curators Francesco Creta and Francesca Pergreffi and artist Dario Molinaro, who is also active in the curatorial and scouting fields.

The opening is scheduled for Saturday, February 21, at 6 p.m.: an opportunity for artists, curators, and collectors—whether experts or novices—to come together, united by their interest in the art of the future.

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