The sixth edition of the Osvaldo Licini Award by Fainplast is kicking off—an award inspired by the figure of Osvaldo Licini and dedicated to contemporary painting. For 2026, the following artists have been selected: Thomas Braida, Cecilia De Nisco, Pesce Khete, Alessandro Roma, Caterina Silva, and Michele Tocca. The selection was entrusted to a national network of professionals in the contemporary art field, comprising curators, critics, museum directors, collectors, and artists, who were asked to independently nominate two names each based on criteria of merit and independence.
The nominations were collected confidentially and anonymously, without participants knowing the identities of the others involved, with the aim of ensuring a pluralistic and transparent process. The total number of votes determined the shortlist of six artists. This fall, the name of the artist who received the most nominations will be announced; this artist will hold a solo exhibition at the Osvaldo Licini Contemporary Art Gallery in Ascoli Piceno.
Established in 2021 and promotedby the Associazione Arte Contemporanea Picena together with Fainplast, the event’s main sponsor, the Prize has involved nearly 250 professionals—including curators, critics, institutional directors, journalists, and collectors—across its six editions, gathering nearly 400 nominations. The process led to the selection of 30 Italian and international artists working in the field of contemporary painting.
The panel of professionals who selected the artists includes: Paola Angelini, Andrea Barzaghi, Raffaele Bedarida, Ilaria Bonacossa, Paola Bonani, Elena Bordignon, Camilla Bruni, Marino Capretti, Barbara Casavecchia, Elia Castello, Luca Cerizza, Caliandro Christian, Adelaide Cioni, Stefano Coletto, Eva Comuzzi, Mauro Covacich, Davide Daninos, Michele Dantini, Flavio De Marco, Sara Dolfi Agostini, Adrienne Drake, Piero Ducci, Roberta Faraotti, Milovan Farronato, Matteo Fato, Marta Federici, Fabio Frasca, Federico Giannini, Sebastiano Impellizzeri, Denis Isaia, Andrea Lombardinilo, Angela Maderna, Beatrice Meoni, Paola Nicolin, Luigi Presicce, Emanuela Pulvirenti, Leonie Radine, Andrea Salvino, Alessandro Scarabello, Massimiliano Scuderi, Marco Senaldi, Marta Silvi, Alex Urso, and Italo Zuffi.
Thomas Braida develops a style of painting fueled by diverse references, ranging from mythology to popular culture, from trash aesthetics to literature. His expressionist, ironic, and grotesque language combines highbrow and lowbrow references and conceives of painting as a simplification of reality and a process of transforming color, mark, and subject.
Cecilia De Nisco uses blurring, shadows, texture, and pixelation to explore the phenomenology of desire. Fragmentation and the obstruction of the gaze become tools for reflecting on emotional relationships and power dynamics, constructing images in which desire and intimacy are simultaneously present and elusive.
Pesce Khete’s practice is rooted in the tension between control and abandonment. The artist works under conditions that prevent a holistic view, proceeding through successive gestures within predetermined rules, times, and spaces. From this method emerge images, artistic references, and autobiographical fragments linked to involuntary memory, isolated before transforming into a narrative.
Alessandro Roma keeps painting at the center of a body of work that also incorporates fusion, fabric printing, ceramics, and collage. These techniques have expanded his repertoire toward inner landscapes drawn from real-life experiences and literary sources, translating the imagination into forms accessible to the viewer.
Caterina Silva focuses her work on the limits of language and representation. Through a personal alphabet—composed of constantly evolving non-figurative forms—she constructs spaces of ambiguity and resistance to fixed meaning. Her abstract, gestural brushwork challenges the relationship between language, authority, and control.
Michele Tocca, on the other hand, explores the relationship with places, domestic environments, and walking. He paints from life, primarily outside the studio, exposing his paintings to the conditions of the physical world. Light, atmospheric phenomena, organic formations, and traces of daily activities do not become the subjects of the paintings, but rather conditions of the very process of their creation.
“The Osvaldo Licini Prize is not limited to the selection of artists and the announcement of the winner, but unfolds as an ongoing journey throughout the year,” states Andrea Valentini, President of the Picena Contemporary Art Association. “It begins with the selection of artists, through invitations extended to leading professionals in the art world, and continues with activities aimed at members and the general public to introduce them to contemporary art, the figure of Licini, and Italian painting: presentations, catalogs, artist residencies, and other events. The quality of the artists selected over the years—thanks to the involvement of leading Italian professionals—has made the Award increasingly recognized, and this year, we are delighted to have six selected artists.”
“The vision we had in 2021,” adds Roberta Faraotti, who, together with her brother Daniele and her father Battista, leads Fainplast, the Award’s main sponsor, “in creating an award dedicated to contemporary painting, has been rewarded over time by the results achieved, by the prominent artists who have become associated with the event, and by the collaborations forged with major institutions and museums across the country. This journey continues with this year’s edition, which features highly prestigious names contributing to the award’s growth.”
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| Osvaldo Licini Award by Fainplast: The Six Artists Selected for 2026 Have Been Announced |
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