top of page
Search

Museo della Città di Livorno and Museo Giovanni Fattori - Granai di Villa Mimbelli to Host the 16th Edition of the Combat Prize

    Two prestigious museums will host the final exhibition of the eighty finalist artists of the Combat Prize, from June 28 to July 12, 2025. The selected works will be exhibited at the Museo Giovanni Fattori – Granai di Villa Mimbelli and the Museo della Città di Livorno, which houses a valuable permanent collection of contemporary art. This dual-venue will provide a multifaceted perspective on Livorno’s cultural landmarks, fostering a dialogue between past and present, tradition and innovation.

    Pino Pascali- grande rettile - Museo della Città
    Pino Pascali - Il Grande Rettile - Museo della Città di Livorno

    With the announcement of these new exhibition venues, registrations are now officially open for the 16th edition of the Combat Prize, an international competition dedicated to promoting and enhancing contemporary art.

    The Prize aims to map out the trajectories of both Italian and international artistic landscapes and document the transformation of artistic languages. By doing so, it seeks to capture the most dynamic and unexplored energies of contemporary art.

    The grand prize of €10,000 has been confirmed and will be awarded by the jury to one artist among the eighty finalists. Additional cash prizes will be granted for each competition category.

    The Special Gallery Prize involves the selection of one finalist artist—independently of the jury—by five leading contemporary art galleries. The selected artist will receive support to develop a new collaboration, which will culminate in a solo or group exhibition during the 2025/26 season in a dedicated independent space.

    The Poliart Prize has also been confirmed, providing support for the production of an artwork by one of the finalist artists, selected by Poliart, a leading company in the processing of expanded polystyrene.

    Granai di Villa MImbelli
    Museo civico Giovanni Fattori - Granai di Villa MImbelli Livorno

    IThese special prizes aim to foster meaningful dialogue between art, business, and local communities, which is essential for promoting and raising awareness of contemporary artists.


    AWARDS FROM THE 16TH EDITION OF THE COMBAT PRIZE


    • €10,000 – Prize Winner of the Combat Prize


    Category Awards:


    • €1,500 – Winner of the Painting category*

    • €1,500 – Winner of the Sculpture & Installation category*

    • €1,500 – Winner of the Photography category*

    • €1,500 – Winner of the Graphics category*

    • €1,500 – Winner of the Video - Performance Art category*

    *The winning artwork will remain the property of the artist.


    • Gallery Prize – A solo or group exhibition in the 2025-2026 exhibition season

    Special Prizes – Collaboration with five galleries and an independent space

    • Special Poliart Prize – The company, a leader in expanded polystyrene processing, will support the production of a work by a selected finalist artist


    Application Deadline: April 30, 2025


    For more information: info@premiocombat.it



     
     

    The winners of the 15th Combat Prize are announced


      The 15th edition of COMBAT PRIZE, an international contemporary art competition organised by the cultural association Blob Art ETS in collaboration with the Municipality of Livorno and supported by the Regione Toscana, the Fondazione Livorno, the Sillabe publishing house and partner Opera Laboratori, as well as Poliart, a leading manufacturer of expanded polystyrene, closed on Saturday 5 October with the announcement of the winners.

       


      Museo Giovanni Fattori - Granai di Villa Mimbelli
      Museo Giovanni Fattori - Granai di Villa Mimbelli

       

      Museo Giovanni Fattori - Granai di Villa Mimbelli

       

      The jury, composed of Ilaria Gianni, Francesca Baboni, Angel Moya Garcia, Lorenzo Balbi, Andrea Bruciati, Davide Ferri, and Stefano Taddei, chose as the winner of the Combat Prize, worth ten thousand euros, Federico Aprile with the work "Nel Grido di Anánkē", for the following reason: "The winning work emerged among the many candidates and caught the jury's attention thanks to its ability to challenge the chosen medium and to use a large number of different techniques within it. The artist managed to combine visceral elements and superficial details, sound waves and silent surfaces, imaginary landscapes and internal parts of a possible collective body in a perfect and balanced way, bringing a global message reminding us how we are all in constant and inexorable change."



      ree
      Federico Aprile - Nel Grido di Anánkē olio e fusaggine su tela, 200 x 159 cm

       

      For the Painting section, the jury awarded the prize to Julie Polidoro with the work "Social Distance", for the following reason: "The artist translates into painting a scene taken from the web, one of the many that appear on our screens and are quickly replaced by others. The protagonist is a temporary evacuation centre following a natural disaster. The migrants' faces are incomplete, their bodies isolated in their confines, and their loneliness and marginalisation emerge from the vivid brushstrokes. The work reminds us of the importance of stopping our gaze on collective and anonymous tragedies, through a pictorial language that interprets our socio-political times."


      Jury special mention to Jilian Wu


      social distance
      Juli Polidoro - SOCIAL DISTANCE tecnica mista, tela di lino sospesa 261 x 211 cm

       

      For the Photography section, the jury declared Camilla Postiglione the winner with the work 'Bystanders', for the following reason: 'The work revives a classic theme from the Romantic pictorial tradition, but with different nuances. The figures of bystanders in front of the landscape, alone in a semi-anthropized context, appear suspended between a sense of inappearance and a desire for abandonment. The frayed contours of the pictures instil a sense of perpetual unresolvedness."


      Jury special mention to Giulia Sofi

       


      Bystanders
      Camilla Postiglione - Bystanders stampa transfer amos da fotografia analogica su carta artistico Fabriano radiant white, 28 x 38,5 cm cad.

       

      For the Graphics section, the prize was awarded to Marco Rossi with his work "Un attimo impensato" (An unthought-of moment), for the following reason: "For his extraordinary ability to describe the identity of the individual as an element of human transformation, through a free and lively stroke that expresses tension through the monotype technique."

       

      Special mention of the jury to Barbara Rosita Raimondo


      ree
      Marco Rossi - Un attimo impensato monotipo, inchiostri calcografici, 82 x 82 cm

       

      The jury declared Riccardo Bellelli the winner for the Sculpture/Installation section with the work "Turner", for the following reason: "The author pours regressive psychic mechanisms onto found objects and materials according to primarily pictorial-compositional values. This approach draws on neo-surrealist aesthetic categories based on ambiguous, ironic or perturbing juxtapositions."


       

      Special mention of the jury to Grossi - Maglioni


      Turner
      Riccardo Bellelli - "Turner" incisione manuale su segnale stradale, 50 x 27 x 12 cm

       

      Finally, for the Video section, the jury awarded the prize to Leila Erdman Tabukashvili with her work "I'm not afraid of the Apocalypse, I'm afraid you don't love me anymore" for the following reason: "For the poetic way in which she has created a video focusing on the opposition to war and the crime perpetrated by her homeland. Filmed three weeks before the start of the mobilisation in Russia on 1 September 2023, the video unfolds as a group portrait in which the moment before the apocalypse begins is gradually revealed. Because of the topicality of the narrative, because of the attempt to record what happened so that it is not forgotten, because of the need to recount from the inside what is being concealed by the international media."

       

      Jury special mention to Benedetta Fioravanti


       


      Leila Erdman-Tabukashvili
      Leila Erdman-Tabukashvili - I’m not afraid of the Apocalypse, I am afraid you don’t love me anymore - 4'33''

      The awarding of the Galleria Prizes, a special prize born from the collaboration with five important contemporary art galleries and the independent space SAC Spazio Arte Contemporanea in Livorno, and consisting in the realisation of an exhibition project at their venues in the 2023/24 season, thus giving continuity to the dialogue initiated during the participation in the Prize, saw the following prizes awarded

       

      A Pick Gallery in Turin selected artist Jilian Wu as its winner

      The Milanese gallery A.More honoured artist Daniele Antoniazzi

      The Federico Rui Gallery in Milan awarded the prize to Riccardo Vicentini

      The Lunetta 11 gallery in Borgo Lunetta, Cuneo, has declared Lucia Cantò the winner

      For the Magazzeno Gallery in Bologna, the winner is Davide Zulli

      The Stazione Arte Contemporary gallery in Milan awarded the prize to Asya Dell'Uomodarme

      Finally, the independent SAC contemporary art space in Livorno selected as winners: Melissa Arena, Giulia Vanelli, Asya Dell'Uomodarme, Teresa Satta

       

      The Poliart prize is awarded to Davide Zulli. The Poliart company, a leader in the expanded polystyrene sector, will support the production of a new work by the artist.

       

      Finally, the Popular Jury Prize, awarded on the basis of the preferences expressed by the participating public, is awarded to Marco Casalena with the work Pioneer.

       

       

       

       

       

       
       

      Lucca Art Fair opens its 8th edition: All news galleries, publishers, curatorial projects, tours

        From 19 to 21 April 2024, Lucca Art Fair returns to the Real Collegio, the modern and contemporary art fair that for three days will make one of Italy's most famous art cities the protagonist. Born from the urgency to strengthen and widen the network of realities linked to the art world in the territory, Lucca Art Fair, in its eighth edition, proposes itself as a platform for comparison between local and international projects belonging to the world of contemporary art.


        Real Collegio, Lucca
        Real Collegio, Lucca

        Lucca Art Fair is organised by T.O.E. in collaboration with Blob Art ETS and under the patronage of the City of Lucca, Camera di Commercio Toscana Nord Ovest, Confindustria Toscana Nord.

        For this eighth edition," says Paolo Batoni, "the selection criteria were the research and quality of the exhibitors, together with the diversification of the proposal, maintaining and strengthening the commercial energy of the event. We want to feed the ferment of new market trends and facilitate the entry of new generations of enthusiasts into the world of collecting and contemporary art".

        Fifty-one contemporary art operators will be present at this eighth edition, divided into the four sections that make up the fair. Three established sections will host forty-one galleries, while the brand-new fourth section will be dedicated to art publishing and artists' books.

        The main section, the strong point of the event, will include thirty-four galleries established on the national scene, proposing a happy aesthetic combination through a selection of works following a path from

        a selection of works ranging from modern and post-war art to the most contemporary. The presence of painting, both figurative and abstract, and sculpture is predominant, in line with the proposal of international fairs. In the proposed itinerary, among the local projects, the exhibition project of the 800/900 Art Studio Gallery stands out. It presents a series of works by the painter Alfredo Meschi (Lucca 1905 - 1981), often considered the artistic symbol of Lucca. Meschi devoted much of his work to capturing the urban and rural essence of the city. Among the Lucca exhibitors is the Brugiati Gallery, with a selection of existential works by the Versilia artist Giovanni Raffaelli.


        Dragoljub Raša Todosijević - courtesy Galerie Prototip
        Dragoljub Raša Todosijević - courtesy Galerie Prototip

        There is no lack of international flair, as exemplified by the Prototip Gallery in Belgrade, which presents a focus composed of photographs, drawings, and video works, but also documents, recordings of performances and actions by the "Belgrade Conceptual", a group of six artists known and recognised throughout the world, composed of Marina Abramović, Dragoljub Raša Todosijević, Neša Paripović, Zoran

        Popović, Era Milivojević, and Gergelj Urkom, who gathered around the newly established gallery of the Belgrade Student Cultural Centre and established themselves on the world art scene in the 1970s and 1980s.


        ree
        Concettuale di Belgrado - courtesy Galerie Prototip

        The Street Levels Gallery concludes the fair's overview, offering a cross-section of the Italian and international urban art movement: Ache77, Exit Enter, James Vega, Kraita317, Monograff, Nian.


        The Lucca Art Fair enriches its itinerary with the Art Projects and Independent sections, reserved for proposal galleries and non-profit realities committed to linking the most innovative languages and intergenerational dialogue. Among them is the Siena Art Institute, an international art school that, from its headquarters in the green heart of the city, is bringing to the fair a small centre of practices and experiences to establish a dialogue with insiders and onlookers. The Institute intends to open up to the world of the art market its founding values, such as attention to social practices, accessibility, technical excellence, cultural welfare, cultural exchange and environmental sustainability. The school's participation supports the concept of the art fair as a place of exchange and sharing, without renouncing its economic nature.

        The fourth and new section, Editor - The Artist's Books Section, entirely dedicated to independent publishing and the artist's book, aims to highlight the kaleidoscopic nature of this aesthetic object, which in itself constitutes a platform for dialogue between the arts and the comparison of simultaneous perspectives. The range of participants brings together ten realities from different regions, representing a sample of the diversity of perspectives, intending to narrate the exchange between publishers and artists in the experimentation of new creative paths. Independent publishers such as Casa Editrice Peacock (Galzignano Terme, Padova), Forma Edizioni (Florence), Giostre Edizioni (Colle Val d'Elsa, Siena), Maschietto Editore (Florence) and Ronzani Editore (Rome) will be present. There will also be cultural workshops and independent artists such as Sincresis (Empoli, Florence), APRI (Bologna), Giorgia Abbati (Colorno, Parma), Laura Castellucci (Florence) and Letizia Ardillo (Rome).


        This year, the exhibition itinerary of the fair and the exploration of the ways in which the most diverse languages of contemporary art meet will be completed by That's Contemporary! A call for VIDEO ARTS, a project entirely dedicated to artists' videos, which will be held for the second time at the fair, after its first edition at Cremona Art Fair 2024. The call, curated by Bianca Basile and Camilla Remondina, in collaboration with the artistic direction of the Combat Prize, was addressed to all artists who wish to represent the contemporary through video, a medium that more easily than others combines the disciplines that characterise, study and represent this temporal concept that synthesises time, giving it a synchronic and current image. Of the two hundred works submitted, ten were selected as the most powerful examples of personal and different readings of the contemporary. Together, the selected works interpret the present as a multifocal lens. "It is not possible to identify a single stylistic or ideological current that underlies recent trends in video art," say the curators Bianca Basile and Camilla Remondina, "so we have chosen ten works that provide a sample of the most important themes and genres. In these works, we have noticed a particular urgency to communicate sensations and reflections that have as their subject the current human condition about the problems that characterise the present on a global scale".


        ree
        That’s Contemporary! A call for VIDEO ARTS - Allestimento a Cremona Art Fair

        Delle duecento opere candidate sono state selezionate le dieci che, con maggior forza,

        mostrano personali e differenti letture della contemporaneità. Insieme, i lavori scelti

        interpretano il presente come lente multifocale.

        «Non è possibile individuare un’unica corrente stilistica o di pensiero alla base delle recenti tendenze della video art - commentano le curatrici Bianca Basile e Camilla Remondina - per questo motivo abbiamo selezionato dieci opere che possano restituire una campionatura delle tematiche e dei generi più significativi. In questi lavori, abbiamo notato una particolare urgenza di comunicare sensazioni e riflessioni che hanno come oggetto la condizione attuale dell’essere umano, in relazione alle problematiche che stanno caratterizzando globalmente il presente».



        See all the galleries participating in Lucca Art Fair 2024


        Main Section: 800/900 Art Studio, Lucca, AD Gallery, Sesto Fiorentino (FI),

        Antigallery, Venezia – Mestre (VE), ArmandaGoriArte, Prato, Art Lab, Treviso, Art Shop, Pistoia, ArteA Gallery, Milano, Artenetwork Orler, Marcon (VE), Big Eyes Art Gallery, Bologna, Billyrayart, Milano, Daliano Ribani Arte, Carrara, Di Mauer Arte

        Contemporanea, Prato, Dl Arte, Milano, HR Doks Gallery, Torino

        Galleria d'arte Brugiati, Monterotondo (Roma), Galleria del Teatro Romano, Fiesole (FI), Galleria delle Visioni, Piacenza, Galleria Granelli, Castiglioncello (LI), Gallerie Reflektor, Užice (RS), Giannini Franco arte contemporanea, Soiano del Lago (BS), Guastalla Centro Arte, Livorno, Laboratorio 31 Art Gallery, Bergamo, LDXArtodrome Gallery, Berlino, Marco Orler international Gallery, Oriago di Mira (VE), Monocromo Contemporary Art, Roma, Olio su Tavola, Lucca, Prototip, Belgrado (RS), RL51, Pietrasanta (LU), Schiavano Antonio Fine Art, Milano, Soave Arte, Alessandria, Stazione Arte Contemporary, Milano, Street Levels Gallery, Firenze, Studio Pivuelle Arte, San Giovanni Valdarno (AR), Veridieci, Palazzolo sull’Oglio (BS)


        Art Projects: Galleria FormaPop, Roma, Siena Art Institute, Siena, Studio Godot,

        Castellina Marittima (PI)

        Independent: Studio Mariangela Fremura, Livorno, Studio Cristina Sammarco, Isola d’Elba, Studio Riccardo Raul Papavero, Varese, Studio Valeska Von Brase, Monaco


        Editor - The Artists' Books Section: APRI, Bologna, Casa Editrice Peacock, Galzignano

        Terme (PD), Forma Edizioni, Firenze, Giorgia Abbati, Colorno (PR), Giostre Edizioni,

        Colle Val d'Elsa (SI), Laura Castellucci, Firenze, Letizia Ardillo, Roma, Maschietto

        Editore, Firenze, Ronzani Editore, Dueville (VI), Sincresis, Empoli (FI)


        That’s Contemporary! A call for VIDEO ARTS: Matteo Campulla, Monica Carrera,

        Leila Erdman-Tabukashvili, Luca Granato, Susana Ljuljanovic, Eleonora Roaro,

        Antti Tanttu, Vaste Programme, Sabrina Zanolini, Marzio Zorio



        Lucca Art Fair 2024

        Where to go

        Real Collegio, Lucca

        Piazza del Collegio, 13

        When

        Friday 19 April 15.00 - 20.00

        Saturday 20 April 10 am - 8 pm

        Sunday 21 April 10 am - 8 pm

        Entrance fee

        Day ticket Friday € 5.00

        Day ticket Saturday and Sunday € 10,00

        Reduced day ticket: € 8.00*.

        Reduced ticket: €5.00 for students with valid student cards.

        *Reduced day ticket for:

        Residents of the Province of Lucca, groups (minimum 10 people), disabled and over 65s.

        Free entry for children under 12 accompanied by their parents.

        Contact details


         
         
        bottom of page