Arte Laguna Prize

Displaying 240 artworks by as many artists from over 50 countries, Arte Laguna Prize, which from 2021 takes place every two years, presents the 16th and 17th edition finalists’ exhibition from March 11 to April 16 2023. 

An extraordinary location of 4000 square meters, the Arsenale Nord of Venice welcomes the works selected in the last two editions for each of the ten award categories: Painting, Sculpture and Installation, Photographic Art, Video Art and Short Films, Performance, Digital Art, Digital Graphics and Cartoons, Land Art, Urban Art and Street Art, Art Design.  

The finalists have been chosen among over 20 thousand applicants by two juries, one for each edition, composed of internationally known curators, museum directors and art experts.  The two winners – who will be announced during the opening of the exhibition, Saturday 11 of March – will be awarded a prize of 10,000 euros each.

Several Special Prizes are also offered. These relevant awards include the production of artworks, a worldwide network of residences, the chance to exhibit in important Italian and international galleries and festivals, various collaborations with companies and cash prizes. 

Therefore Arte Laguna Prize confirms itself as one of the richest contemporary art competitions in terms of opportunities for artists.

Founded in 2006 by the cultural association MoCA, in 17 years of activity Arte Laguna Prize has proven to be attentive to the most current instances in the art world and beyond. The same categories of works that can nowadays be proposed have evolved over time, following the most contemporary trends and always including new forms of expression: from art design, with the presentation of productions that originate in the artistic sphere and then find their application in the world of industrial design, to graphic art and cartoons, up to the very recent admission of works of art certified with NFT, namely those forms of art involving the digitization of a physical work or the creation of a digital artwork. 

Instead, concerning the attention given to current issues of general interest, worthy of mention are those Special Prizes related to environmental matters such as the ‘Art and Sustainability’ prize, dedicated to works, products or artistic projects that emphasise RRR (Reuse, Reduce, Recycle) strategies and their positive impact on nature and the lives of citizens, and the BigCi environmental residency that will take place in Australia in Wollemi National Park.

The exhibition is accompanied by a digital catalogue, with a critical text by Luca Beatrice.

In conjunction with the Arsenale exhibition, the MoCA cultural association also presents the first Italian solo exhibition of Chinese artist Qian Wu, curated by Luca Beatrice, in its exhibition space in the heart of Venice,

Arte Laguna Prize has been awarded the medal of the President of the Italian Republic and it is sponsored annually by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of the Environment and Protection of Land and Sea, the Veneto Region, the Metropolitan City of Venice, the Municipality of Venice, the Cà Foscari University of Venice and the European Institute of Design.

THE JURIES

16th edition: Kobi Ben-Meir – Chief Curator of Haifa Museum of Art (Israel); Louise Fedotov-Clements – Artistic Director of Quad and Director of Format International Photography Festival (United Kingdom); Pasquale Lettieri – Curator, Critic, Historian, Academic and Journalist (Italy); Alka Pande – Consultant Art Advisor and Curator, Visual Arts Gallery, India Habitat Center a Nuova Delhi (India); Danilo Premoli – Architect, Designer, Artist (Italy); Alisa Prudnikova – Founder, Commissioner and Artistic Director of the Ural Industrial Biennial (Russia).

17th edition: Mohamed Benhadj – Curator and Founder of Altiba9 (North Africa and Spain); Raphael Chikukwa – Executive Director of the Zimbawe National Gallery; Giulia Colletti – Public Programs and Digital Sphere’s Curator at Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Turin (Italia); Paul Di Felice – Art Curator, Critic and Art Historian (Luxembourg); Chloe Hodge – Project manager at the Tate Britain, Curator and Producer (United Kingdom); Dick Spierenburg – Designer and Creative Director of IMM Cologne – the international furniture and interiors fair (The Netherlands); Xiaoyu Weng – Curator and Head of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Art Gallery of Ontario (United States and Canada).

Datasheet

Title Arte Laguna Prize
Promoted by Associazione Culturale MoCA (Modern and Contemporary Art)
Under the patronage of Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Ecological Transition, the Veneto Region, the Municipality of Venice, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, RUFA Rome University of Fine Arts; it obtained a medal from the President of the Italian Republic
Location Venezia, Nappe dell’Arsenale Nord, water-bus stop Bacini/Arsenale Nord
Dates 11 March – 16 April 2023
Press Preview Saturday 11 March, at 12 pm at Nappe dell’Arsenale Nord, Venezia
Opening Saturday 11 March, at 5 pm
Opening hours daily 10 am – 6 pm
Admission free, with liberal donation to MoCA cultural association
Catalogue digital, with critical text by Luca Beatrice
Info to the Public https://artelagunaprize.com/exhibition-22-23/