Emilio Mazzoli, founder of Mazzoli Gallery with offices in Modena and Berlin, will receive the 2026 ANGAMC Lifetime Achievement Award. The ceremony will take place Saturday, Feb. 7 at 6:30 p.m. in the Talk Area of the Arte Fiera Bologna Service Center and will be open to all visitors to the event. The award, promoted by theNational Association of Modern and Contemporary Art Galleries, is the only Italian prize dedicated to the figure of the gallery owner, a central professional in the dissemination of art and culture. The ANGAMC Lifetime Achievement Award attests to the merit and professionalism of those who, along the path of their activity, have been able to represent and promote with authority the values of the category, contributing to strengthening its reputation both in Italy and abroad.
The award will be presented by Andrea Sirio Ortolani, president of ANGAMC. The ceremony will also feature Davide Ferri, artistic director of Arte Fiera, Enea Righi, operations director, and Gianpiero Calzolari, president of BolognaFiere. Art critic Achille Bonito Oliva will introduce attendees to the history of the gallerist and his gallery, while the meeting will be moderated by journalist Nicolas Ballario.
“The ANGAMC Prize is awarded to the career of Emilio Mazzoli, who in his activity as a gallery owner was able to distinguish himself for his vision, courage and curatorial quality, contributing in a decisive way to the growth and diffusion of contemporary art from the 1970s to the present,” reads the official motivation. “With his gallery he discovered, supported and accompanied artists destined to mark the history of Italian and international art, assuming a central role in the dialogue with the American and European scene. His work, enriched by an intense publishing activity and a profound dialogue between visual arts, literature and poetry, represents an exemplary model of cultural commitment and civil passion.”
“The ANGAMC Lifetime Achievement Award,” says President Andrea Sirio Ortolani, “is awarded to a gallerist affiliated with the National Association of Modern and Contemporary Art Galleries to celebrate their history, vision and commitment. This is a prestigious recognition that enhances not only a professional path of excellence, but also the decisive contribution of someone who has made a profound impact on the modern and contemporary art scene. The Board of Directors is pleased to once again be able to award the ANGAMC Prize within Arte Fiera, which, with the artistic direction of Davide Ferri and the operational direction of Enea Righi, is ideally embarking on a new course. Emilio Mazzoli and his gallery have been and still are a model for the younger generation of gallery owners. It is an honor to be able to publicly recognize the value of a professional who, in a career spanning more than 50 years, has promoted and supported Italian artists and brought international authors to Italy, without ever interrupting an invaluable scouting activity aimed at young artists.”
Emilio Mazzoli began his activity as a gallery owner in 1970 in Modena with Futura - Galleria d’arte contemporanea, inaugurated with a solo exhibition of Giulio Turcato, followed by a group show of Jannis Kounellis, Luciano Fabro and Giulio Paolini. In 1977 he opened a space bearing his name, Emilio Mazzoli, where he exhibited artists such as Vincenzo Agnetti, Gilberto Zorio, Enrico Castellani, Giovanni Anselmo and Mario Schifano. In 1978, he met Achille Bonito Oliva, with whom he began an ongoing collaboration that marked the beginning of the Transavanguardia adventure, organizing exhibitions of Enzo Cucchi, Sandro Chia, Mimmo Paladino, Nicola De Maria and Francesco Clemente, events that aroused growing international interest and contributed to the movement’s establishment.
Since the early 1970s, the gallery has collaborated regularly with artists such as Gino De Dominicis, who produced his first and only catalog with the gallery, Mario Schifano, Salvo, Tano Festa, Franco Angeli, Emilio Prini, and Alighiero Boetti, for whom Mazzoli financed his first trips to Afghanistan for his tapestries. For Enzo Cucchi’s Fontana Vista exhibition, the gallery employs critic Giovanni Testori, who also supervises the presentation of three young Austrian artists-Herbert Brandl, Gunter Damisch and Hubert Scheibl.
Since the 1980s, Mazzoli Gallery has been expanding its focus beyond national borders, promoting American artists such as Alex Katz, Ross Bleckner, Robert Longo, Malcolm Morley, David Salle, Peter Halley, Annette Lemieux, Mark Innerst, Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, William Anastasi, Walter Robinson and Mike Bidlo, in collaboration with international critic and curator Richard Milazzo. In 1981 it hosted the world’s first solo exhibition of Jean-Michel Basquiat, curated by New York critic and musician Diego Cortez, and later presented photographers such as Harry Kipper and Gregory Crewdson, as well as singer-songwriter Devendra Banhart.
Mazzoli Gallery maintains ongoing relationships with numerous Italian artists, including Gian Marco Montesano, Mario Dellavedova, Marcello Jori, Wainer Vaccari, Giuseppe Gallo, Franco Fontana, Piero Pizzi Cannella, Pier Paolo Calzolari, Franco Vaccari, Carlo Benvenuto, Stefano Graziani and Olivo Barbieri, and continues to promote young Italian and international artists, such as Jonathan Binet, Ariel Cabrera Montejo, Donato Piccolo, Diego Miguel Mirabella, Gabriele Silli, Alessandro Sciaraffa, Alessandro Giannì, Valerie Keane, Robert Bittenbender, and Ben Schumacher. Each exhibition is accompanied by original catalogs, more than 150 published over time, with critical texts and images.
A lover of literature and poetry, Emilio Mazzoli created, together with Achille Bonito Oliva and Nanni Balestrini, the Delfini Prize for Contemporary Poetry, producing three artist’s boxed sets with illustrated volumes. It has also promoted a series of poetry books by placing texts by authors such as Paul Vangelisti, Nanni Cagnone, Gabriel Magaña Merlo, Jack Spicer, Vladimir D’Amora, Paul Wühr, Giulia Niccolai and George Oppen alongside works by the gallery’s artists. Mazzoli Gallery does not adhere to specific ideologies or movements, but freely focuses on promoting the avant-garde.
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| The ANGAMC 2026 Lifetime Achievement Award goes to Emilio Mazzoli. He brought Basquiat to Europe |
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