X    V A F   F O U N D A T I O N   A W A R D

14.06.2024

“The considerations I make in front of these young artists are such as to establish a natural tradition of which Italy is the heart, because Italian art is the center of the world both compared to French, Spanish and American art. And for this it’s interesting to reveal the research of Valentina Diena, who since can’t avoid the confrontation with Pop Art, like all the Italian artists that suddenly seem overwhelmed by this popular art which is consumerist but also a denunciation of capitalism, finds her original path. Valentina Diena suggests a bond with Pop art through drawing, a drawn Pop Art.
It is surely another path that bonds past with present: in the Italian tradition drawing is the key through which the world is understood, through the reason and thought. Drawing, in Tuscan culture, from Giotto to Botticelli, is measure and order. Reducing Pop art to reason is surely the intuition of Valentina Diena.”

Vittorio Sgarbi

On June 14, 2024, the exhibition for the 10th edition of the prestigious VAF Stiftung Foundation Award is opened.
The award, set up in 2003 in order to promote the young Italian artists, is presented every year by the VAF Foundation to “promoting innovative positions in Italian contemporary art and communicating them in Germany by awarding a prize and through exhibitions and publications”. The exceptional technical skills of Valentina Diena with colored pencils earned her a selection among the 13 finalists of this prestigious award.
   

The first step of the X edition of the “VAF Foundation Art Prize” is held at the Stadtgalerie in Kiel, Germany, from June 15 to September 1, 2024. The exhibition presents the works of the thirteen selected finalists, including several selected artworks of Valentina Diena.         

As in the previous edition, the VAF Foundation will award a first prize worth €15,000, a second prize worth €7,500, a third prize worth €5,000. The winner of the first prize will be entitled to the acquisition of the work in competition, which will therefore be added to the amount of € 15,000, thus becoming part of the prestigious VAF Foundation Collection.
In addition to the prize for young artists, the VAF-Stiftung will also award a Lifetime Achievement Award, limited to artists documented in the Foundation’s large, encyclopedic collection of Italian art. A tribute to long-standing artists that this year will present the works in the VAF collection by Marcello Morandini, an artist, architect, designer from Varese who is one of the most important representatives of Concrete Art in Europe.
On the occasion of the exhibition, a catalogue has been published, in a trilingual Italian, German and English edition.         

The first German step will be followed by the second exhibition of the award at MART, the modern and contemporary art museum of Trento and Roberto, where the long-awaited award ceremony of the artists and winners will be held.


 



 

X VAF Foundation Award exhibition - opening day

 


 


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