In 2025, Max Mara is celebrating women – not that it’s anything new. The Italian fashion house has long championed female creativity, both on and off the runway, as well as through its enduring commitment to the arts. For 20 years, the biennial Max Mara Art Prize for Women has uplifted UK-based female-identifying artists, championing creators of any age at a crucial stage in their careers and supporting talent that is often all too stifled in favour of their male counterparts.

The only visual arts award of its kind in the UK, the prize has, since its establishment in 2005 in partnership with London’s Whitechapel Gallery, granted each winner a bespoke six-month residency across Italy. These residencies culminate in major solo exhibitions, offering time, space and inspiration to develop ambitious new work.

Now, to celebrate its twentieth anniversary, the Italian fashion house is presenting an expansive exhibition at Palazzo Strozzi in Florence, honouring the nine artists who have won the award since its inception – including Margaret Salmon, the inaugural winner in 2006, Emma Talbot (2020) and Dominique White (2023), to name just a few. Running from April 17 to August 31, Time for Women! Empowering Visions in 20 Years of the Max Mara Art Prize for Women brings all their works together for the very first time, under one roof.

“The rooms in the Palazzo Strozzi will be divided into nine sections, each devoted to one of the projects that the artists created for the Prize. Some will be presented in their entirety; others, given their configuration and the space available, will be condensed into their key element which has been agreed in consultation and as relevant with the artists,” says Sara Piccinini, director of the Collezione Maramotti, the prize’s third key partner since 2007.

Florence, she adds, was a deliberate choice – a city rich in historical resonance and a common stop for many of the artists on their Italian “Grand Tour”-inspired residencies. Palazzo Strozzi, a symbol of Renaissance grandeur now dedicated to cutting-edge contemporary culture, is an ideal backdrop to celebrate two decades of artistic innovation and vision.

Each artist brought a distinct voice to the prize: from explorations of motherhood and family dynamics to interrogations of politics, memory and forgotten histories. Media range from sculpture and video to installations and intricate wall works. But what unites them is a spirit of experimentation and a refusal to conform to conventional narratives of femininity in art.

“The Max Mara Art Prize’s greatest strength lies precisely in the enormous freedom that it fosters and imparts,” says Piccinini. “[We hope to draw in] anyone interested in discovering the work of these artists, some of whom have become quite prominent on the international art scene. [The exhibition] offers a snapshot of their work at a point in their careers when they were not yet well known, but tackled the challenge of developing an ambitious project. We particularly hope that many young people will come to the show and encounter the energy, ideas, vulnerabilities and visions of these artists.”

What’s more, a new book accompanying the exhibition includes essays from critics, curators and the artists themselves – a tangible testament to how the Max Mara Art Prize for Women has grown from a groundbreaking idea into a cornerstone of contemporary art.

Discover the exhibition here. Photography courtesy of Max Mara.

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