Congratulations to Virginia Leonard who has been awarded this year’s Officine Saffi Award for her work Pus and Scabs. Acknowledged for its psychologically layered and exuberant expressionism, Leonard’s work has won the supreme award amongst a high calibre of entries from around the world. Established in 2011, Officine Saffi promote international contemporary ceramics within Italy and abroad. On her win, Leonard comments:
“So, this is a cool award for me to win. I know the gallery as last time I showed at MIART in Milan they were the neighbouring gallery, so it makes it a bit more personal, and I have been to the gallery in Milan also.
It means more to me also as the other artists in the award are very skilled and more often than not their work is highly technical; I appreciate the panel of judges looking past that and seeing the expression and gesture within the work and the painterly quality in the work as well. Many of the jury and judges are people that I have admired from afar for a very long time.
It’s also really cool that I am only artist from the Southern Hemisphere. The timing is good as well. I am showing at MIART Milan with Taste Contemporary on 17th September and in a group show that opened over the weekend at Odd and Even at Maison Louis Carre in France, which is the house that Alvar Aalto designed for the art collector. And then in the beginning of October, I am showing at a big show at Usine Kugler in Geneva – it’s nice to be recognised internationally as these shows are happening.”