Ukrainian artist received an award at the XV Florence Biennale 2025

The main theme of the 15th anniversary exhibition was "The Sublime Essence of Light and Darkness. Concepts of Dualism and Unity in Contemporary Art and Design". Concepts of Dualism and Unity in Contemporary Art and Design").

The organisers invited artists to reflect on the eternal dualism of light and darkness through the prism of contemporary art, design and creativity. The concept of the "sublime" is considered here not only aesthetically, but also as a tool for exploring acute social, environmental and political issues of our time.

The Jubilee Biennale was designed to emphasise the role of art as a universal language for understanding and rethinking reality.

Facts about the XV Florence Biennale 2025

TheXV Florence Biennale 2025 was one of the biggest art events in Italy and the world. On an area of 11,000 m², the works of 550 artists and designers from 85 countries from all continents were presented, totalling more than 1,500 works.

Unlike strictly curatorial biennales (such as the Venice Biennale), the Florence exhibition had a democratic, open participation character: masters from different genres and disciplines applied and exhibited their works, competing for prizes from the jury. The exhibition covered painting, sculpture, graphics, photography, digital and multimedia art, installations, as well as art design and applied forms, from object design to fashion.

In addition to the main exhibition, the programme included special projects, competitive and non-competitive sections, and an extensive parallel programme of events ranging from creative meetings to performances.

Key guests: Tim Burton and Patricia Urquiola

The most anticipated special guest was the legendary American film director and artist Tim Burton, whose work embodies the dualism of light and darkness.

The Biennale organised an exclusive solo exhibition "Tim Burton: Light and Darkness", designed by the master himself. The exhibition included 50 works by Burton, organised in five thematic halls, ranging from rare drawings, sketches and author's characters to immersive installations.

The exhibition illustrated Burton's signature combination of fantasy and the macabre: light and shadow, irony and melancholy, dream and nightmare coexist in his imaginary worlds. For his unique contribution to visual culture, Tim Burton was awarded the Lorenzo the Magnificent Lifetime Achievement Award - the award ceremony took place on 21 October on the Biennale stage.

An equally bright star of the Biennale was the famous Spanish designer and architect Patricia Urquiola. In the design section of the forum she presented an interactive installation project "Transition", conceived as a sensual journey through the world of forms and materials. Urquiola's specially designed translucent wall made of fir wood and recycled polycarbonate encouraged viewers to look at the space from new angles. The work combined function and emotion, demonstrating how object design can reflect the idea of duality: solidity and fragility, transparency and optical illusion.

For her outstanding contribution to contemporary design, Patricia Urquiola was awarded the Leonardo da Vinci International Prize for Achievement (in the field of design). She was presented with the award on 23 October, following a public dialogue with Italian critic Silvia Roberazzi on new perspectives on design.

In addition to Burton and Urquiola, the Biennale honoured other special honorees. Three special prizes were awarded in memory of outstanding masters: the Lorenzo the Magnificent President's Prize - an association named after the Florentine painter and ceramicist Oliviero Leonardi, the Career Prize (In Memoriam) to the Chilean artist Marcelo Mayorga (with a show of his work), and a special ceremony in memory of Mario Pacioli, co-founder of the International Lorenzo the Magnificent Prize.

Parallel programme: a dialogue of cultures and ideas

In addition to the exhibition, a rich parallel programme awaited visitors. Every day there were creative meetings, lectures, discussions, master classes and even film screenings. A special guest of these events was the famous art curator and historian Gregorio Luke (USA/Mexico): at the Biennale he gave a series of lectures on the art of the past through the prism of eternal dualism.

In particular, on 22 October, Luke dedicated a public lecture to the work of Rembrandt, a master of light and shadow whose legacy illustrates the Biennale's theme perfectly. His other lecture on 25 October was dedicated to the Mexican muralist David Siqueiros, whose work is also filled with the drama of light and darkness in a social context.

In the middle of the week, on 22 October, the official catalogue of the XV Florence Biennale (published by Giorgio Mondadori) was presented by curators Giovanni Cordoni and Jacopo Celona and editor Carlo Motta. For the first time at the Florence Biennale, a creative competition was held in collaboration with the LOQI brand: young artists were invited to design an eco-bag based on the theme of the exhibition, and the best idea was embodied in a collection of shopper series.

The event "Maurizio Galimberti a Firenze" - a meeting with the cult Italian photographer Maurizio Galiberti - deserves a special mention.

On the opening day, 18 October, his creative talk and photographic performance took place at Villa Angela. Galiberti, famous for his instant Polaroid collages, shared with the audience his vision of Florentine landscapes, the play of light and the architectural forms of the city. His work, shown together with quotes from Charles Baudelaire, Fernando Pessoa and Italo Calvino, created a poetic bridge between visual image and literature, between history and modernity.

Design section and special projects

The 2025 Florence Biennale once again demonstrated that it is not only about fine art, but also about design in all its diversity. In addition to the exhibition of contemporary art, a large area of the fair was dedicated to design projects, from interior concepts to fashion objects. The "Tuscany Means Design" initiative under the auspices of the Italian Association of Industrial Design (ADI), showcasing the achievements of Tuscan designers, also ran here. A separate curatorial exhibition "Trame" (curated by Silvia Fantichelli) explored new trends in design through the prism of material and space. An interesting experiment was the Circular Economy project by the consortium of Revet, R3Direct and WASP - an example of how sustainable technologies are melted into creative art objects.

An unusual dialogue between architecture and science was presented by the interuniversity project "Archibiofoam", which involved students from architecture schools in Finland, Italy and Germany.

And special attention was drawn to the collective photo exhibition "Art Comes Before", dedicated to the memory of Florentine photographer Manfredo Pinzauti. In general, the Biennale's design programme demonstrated the unity of aesthetics and technology, showing how in modern concepts the boundary between artistic image and utilitarian object is sometimes blurred, which is in line with the idea of the unity of opposites.

Ukrainian artists at Florence Biennale 2025

The participation of Ukrainian artists in the XV Florence Biennale deserves special attention.

Despite the war in their native country, Ukrainian artists presented their works at the forum, organically integrating them into the concept of "light and darkness". Below are brief profiles of these Ukrainian participants, each of whom brought her own unique perspective to the Biennale.

Anastasia Novitskaya is a Ukrainian artist (now based in Italy) working in the genre of expressionist oil painting. Her canvases are characterised by rich textures, bright colours and a bold style of painting that conveys strong emotions. Novitskaya's paintings are filled with bright colours and energetic strokes, reflecting her personal creative journey and her desire to find beauty in the world around her. At the Biennale, she presented a series of expressive works dedicated to the sea, exploring the confrontation between light and darkness through colour and texture.

Darya Kondratska is an artist from Zhytomyr region of Ukraine, who has been living in Denmark for several years. Darya is a designer by training, which brings an interesting combination of applied and fine arts to her work. Since the beginning of the Russian invasion, she has been actively helping Ukraine, first by selling her paintings and donating the money to charity, then by organising art workshops in Denmark to collect aid for Ukrainians.

At Florence Biennale 2025 Kondratska presented two painting series - "Flowers" and "Herd Instinct", in which her design background can be felt - the clarity of composition is combined with emotional expression.

As a volunteer, Daria's aim in her 'Flowers' series images is to contrast pain and loss - a ray of hope and goodness. The contrast, flowing lines and shining textures in her paintings symbolise the fragile balance between tragedy and hope - the very dualism of light and darkness that Ukrainian society is experiencing today. "Herd Instinct" is a series that demonstrates the vices of modern humanity.

Sana Shav is an artist originally from Ukraine, now living and working in the USA. Sana is an interdisciplinary artist with international experience. At Florence Biennale 2025 she presented two works from her signature series Fragility of Life, dedicated to the Ukrainian defenders.

In her images, Sana explores the theme of the fragility of human life in the face of the darkness of war and at the same time the power of light that comes from courage, love and memory. The artist explores the interplay of destruction and reconstruction by creating relief compositions on canvas. Her works symbolise rebirth and the emergence of hope from chaos, combining baroque and decadence with contemporary elements

Oksana Milanich is an artist from Kharkiv, known as the "portraitist of angels". Oksana was unable to come to Florence in person, but her series of paintings of angels was shown at the Biennale. In doing so, the artist delivered her message of peace across borders:

"My angels are at the Biennale in Florence, and I stayed in Kharkiv, but art has no borders and limitations...", - Oksana said, emphasising that creativity can overcome any distance and barriers.

Her works, filled with the light of spirituality, organically fit into the general theme of light and darkness, embodying hope and defence amidst the chaos of war.

Olena Hrynevych received special recognition at Florence Biennale 2025: her Golden ∫kin series was awarded the Fifth Prize (Lorenzo il Magnifico Prize)".

Olena Hrynevych is an MA in History and English Philology (Kiev, Ukraine), studied Graphic Design (Projector, Kiev, 2024) and Cultural Entrepreneurship (Travelling U&Mondragon University, Spain, 2024), and participates in the NODE International Curatorial Programme (Berlin, 2025-2026). As part of ArtBoxExpo Basel 2025, Olena created two works live in front of the public - presenting collage art as interactive art for the first time.

Grinevich's works presented at the Biennale continued her exploration of the duality of light and darkness, combining digital abstraction, mathematical structures and sensory perception into an exquisite, multi-layered visual dialogue. Each work demonstrates not only artistic but also intellectual depth, characteristic of contemporaries of the international scene.

As a reminder, all Biennale prizewinners are "Lorenzo il Magnifico", handmade by the Picchiani & Barlacchi workshop in Florence. Since its foundation in 1902, the workshop has maintained a centuries-old tradition of artistic excellence by creating Florence Biennale medals and awards, including commemorative and prestigious prizes for participants. The obverse of the medal is decorated with the profile of Lorenzo de' Medici, while the reverse bears the inscription BIENNALE INTERNAZIONALE DELL'ARTE CONTEMPORANEA - CITTA DI FIRENZE.

According to Olena, this medal has become a symbol of international recognition, continuity of artistic tradition and professional excellence, cementing her status as a representative of Ukrainian contemporary art on the world stage.

The XV Florence Biennale was remembered as a large-scale forum of artistic dialogue, uniting dozens of countries and thousands of spectators around the eternal theme of the struggle and unity of opposites.

A red thread running through the expositions and events was the idea that light and darkness do not exist without each other, and only art can reveal their deep essence and achieve harmony.

Within the walls of Fortezza da Basso, contemporary art and design spoke the same language - the language of symbols, materials, images - to help people make sense of the complex reality of our time.

In 2025, Florence Biennale reaffirmed itself as an open platform where lofty ideas take shape and the dualism of light and darkness becomes a source of creativity and unity.