By Giulia Piceni. Cover image: Time for Women! Empowering Visions in 20 Years of the Max Mara Art Prize for Women, Florence, Palazzo Strozzi, Strozzina, 2025. Exhibition views. Photo Ela Bialkowska, OKNO Studio. Courtesy Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi, Florence.
Running from April 17 to August 31, 2025, the Strozzina spaces at Palazzo Strozzi will host Time for Women! Empowering Visions in 20 Years of the Max Mara Art Prize for Women. This groundbreaking exhibition, in collaboration with Collezione Maramotti, honours two decades of the award and the enduring partnership between Max Mara, Whitechapel Gallery, and Collezione Maramotti. It showcases the works of nine artists who have received this prestigious biennial prize since its inception in 2005.
Max Mara Art Prize for Women: A Vision for Women’s Creative Futures
The Max Mara Art Prize for Women is one of the most significant awards supporting contemporary artists who identify as women. The prize offers a six-month residency in Italy organzided by Collezione Maramotti, with locations chosen in collaboration with each artist. During this time, they will conduct research and production, culminating in the creation of new works. These projects are later exhibited at both the Whitechapel Gallery in London and the Collezione Maramotti in Reggio Emilia.
Time for Women! Presents all the artworks resulting from all nine winners in a single exhibition, revealing a compelling mosaic of themes: identity, gender, memory, politics, and the evolving notion of the body. Through various mediums such as painting, video, sculpture, and installation, the artists express visions that resonate across generations, territories, and disciplines.
Nine Artists, Nine Empowered Narratives
Each of the nine artists awarded the Max Mara Art Prize for Women has developed a unique visual language during their Italian residencies, demonstrating the transformative power of dedicating time and space to artistic creation.
Margaret Salmon, the first prize recipient, explored the rituals of motherhood and labour in Italy through intimate cinematic portraits that merge documentary and fiction, taking advantage of her residency between Rome and Biella. In 2009, Hannah Rickards delved into ephemeral experiences—such as light, sound, and language—translating natural phenomena into immersive sensory environments. In 2011, Andrea Büttner examined spirituality and modesty, connecting monastic traditions with contemporary reflections on humility, shame, and resistance through woodcuts and textiles. Laure Prouvost, awarded in 2013, transformed her Italian residency into a surreal journey of translation and miscommunication, crafting playful, dreamlike installations that blur the lines between sense and nonsense, culminating into a dreamlike movie shown also here in Florence.
Corin Sworn reimagined commedia dell’arte in 2015 by drawing on Italian theatrical traditions and collaborating with Max Mara’s seamstresses to explore archetypes, performance, and identity. In 2017, Emma Hart created Mamma Mia!, a bold ceramic installation developed in Faenza. With humour and emotional intensity, she reflected on family dynamics and the psychology of everyday life. Helen Cammock’s 2019 project uncovered erased female voices from the Italian resistance, weaving together film, performance, and archival research to reclaim marginalised narratives. In 2021, Emma Talbot reinterpreted Klimt’s The Three Ages of Woman, confronting ageing and the female body in a monumental textile piece that celebrates vulnerability and resilience. The most recent winner, Dominique White, uses sculpture to navigate Afro-diasporic mythologies and post-colonial futures, evoking ghostly vessels and symbols of survival and escape.
Time for Women! Exhibition: A Feminine and Political Gaze
Curated with a focus on the diverse expressions of femininity and political engagement, Time for Women! is more than just an archival exhibition; it serves as a dynamic conversation about what it means to create as a female-identifying individual today. The exhibition explores both the intimate and universal aspects of women’s experiences, integrating the mythical and the historical while questioning how institutions can foster long-term support for underrepresented voices in the arts.
