Dian Suci wins the 10th edition of the Max Mara Art Prize for Women (2025 – 2027)

May 11th – Max Mara, Collezione Maramotti and Museum MACAN are pleased to announce that Indonesian artist Dian Suci has been named the winner of the 10th edition of the Max Mara Art Prize for Women, the international award dedicated to supporting and promoting emerging and mid-career women artists at a crucial stage in their professional career.

The winner was unveiled during a cocktail reception, in conjunction with the opening of the 61st International Art Exhibition La Biennale di Venezia, by Cecilia Alemani, curator of the Max Mara Art Prize for Women and chair of the jury, together with Sara Piccinini, Director of Collezione Maramotti, Venus Lau, Director of Museum MACAN, and Elia Maramotti on behalf of Max Mara and Collezione Maramotti. Dian Suci was selected as the winner from the five finalists, which also included Betty Adii, Dzikra Afifah, Ipeh Nur, and Mira Rizki.

Dian Suci – WINNER MMAP10

As part of the award, Dian Suci will undertake a six-month travelling residency across Italy, organized by Collezione Maramotti and specifically tailored to the development of the project she proposed to the jury. This experience will culminate in a solo show at Museum MACAN in Jakarta in the summer of 2027; it will be presented again that autumn in Reggio Emilia, Italy, at Collezione Maramotti, which will acquire the works.

Dian Suci (b. 1985 in Kebumen, Indonesia) lives and works in Yogyakarta. Her practice lies at the intersection of domestic narratives and state political power. Drawing on her everyday experiences as a single mother, her work addresses issues connected to the political domestication of women, authoritarianism and fascism, the patriarchy and capitalism. Acutely aware of spatial composition, Suci employs a variety of media, including installation, painting, sculpture and video.

The project proposal with which the artist won the tenth edition of the Max Mara Art Prize for Women is titled Crafting Spirit: Cultural Dialogues in Heritage and Practice. It springs from her desire to explore the fallout of the encounter between religious artisan traditions and the capitalist system, through a comparative study of Italy and Indonesia. The handcrafting of votive objects and religious images will become the hub of Suci’s enquiry into the commoditization and exploitation of belief in contemporary culture. Her research is intended to examine whether and how spirituality, even in systems permeated by market dynamics, injustice and oppression, can endure as a form of cultural resilience.

Statement by Dian Suci, tenth winner of the Max Mara Art Prize for Women: “I am deeply honored to be selected as the recipient of the Max Mara Art Prize for Women. My proposal, “Crafting Spirit: Cultural Dialogues in Heritage and Practice”, emerges from stories of the body and memory within the lives and gestures of women artisans, whose work often exists between devotion and survival. This recognition offers me the opportunity to expand my research between Indonesia and Italy, and to learn from traditions and rituals that hold spirituality within the bodies that create. I receive this opportunity with gratitude and a commitment to listen, to learn, and to translate these encounters into forms that honor the intimacy of human labor and the depth of cultural continuity.”

Cecilia Alemani, curator of the Max Mara Art Prize for Women: “Dian Suci’s work impressed me with its extraordinary capacity to transform the realm of everyday domestic life into a realm of political resistance. Her practice is perfectly aligned with the core concept of this prize, whose tenth edition has chosen to explore the artistic landscape of Indonesia. The unique nature of Dian’s project lies in the analytic gaze it turns on spirituality: not as an escape from reality, but as resilient response to the invasive influences of capitalism and mass production. Her residency in Italy will be a true cultural dialogue. The contrasts and similarities between Umbrian religious art, the papier-mâché tradition in Lecce, and the expert skills found in Florence will provide Dian with new tools for mapping how the work of the hands can still serve as a stronghold of collective memory, and of a belief system that resists the commoditization of life and art.”

The Max Mara Art Prize for Women is an award established in 2005 by Max Mara to support emerging and mid-career female-identifying artists, offering them time, resources, and a residency in Italy to develop new artistic projects. Initially created in collaboration with the Whitechapel Gallery in London, the prize will become itinerant starting from its 10th edition (2025–2027), moving across different countries under the curatorial direction of Cecilia Alemani. Winners are selected by a jury and receive a six-month residency organized by Collezione Maramotti, followed by two solo exhibitions: one at the partner institution and one at Collezione Maramotti, which acquires the artworks.

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