Emilio Mazzoli receives ANGAMC lifetime achievement award

Emilio Mazzoli, the 82-year-old gallerist from Modena, has been awarded a lifetime achievement award by ANGAMC, Italy's national association of modern and contemporary art galleries. The ceremony will take place at Arte Fiera Bologna on February 7, 2026, at 6:30 PM, with representatives from ANGAMC and the fair. Mazzoli, born in 1942, opened his first gallery, Futura, in 1970, featuring artists like Luciano Fabro and Jannis Kounellis, but closed it due to lack of sales. He then worked as a private dealer until reopening his namesake gallery in 1977, which continues to operate in Modena and Berlin, now run by his children. Mazzoli is a key figure in the Transavanguardia movement, collaborating with critic Achille Bonito Oliva and artists such as Sandro Chia and Enzo Cucchi. He also championed artists like Tano Festa, Franco Angeli, and Gino De Dominicis, whom he considers marginalized. Mazzoli owns about 200,000 art books and a sculpture park. In the interview, he criticizes the current art market as dominated by finance, power, and fraud, contrasting it with the more poetic and intellectually driven era of his early career. He recalls the ideological conflict between Arte Povera and Transavanguardia, describing Arte Povera as political and militant, while Transavanguardia was initially labeled fascist. Mazzoli remains optimistic about art's future, advising young people to seek beauty within their own generation.