About

STATEMENT

While using photography as her main medium, Zanin’s practice crosses different languages including writing, video, sound, and sculpture, creating installations and artist books. Her research, closely linked to autobiographical experiences, explores the origins of specific behaviors and patterns within family dynamics, including themes like absence, memory, aggression, and patriarchy. Her work is divided between research, imagination, and instinct, drawing from her memories and everyday stimuli. Objects, gestures, animals, plants, and body parts, transform into new symbols. Zanin creates layered narratives in which perceptions intertwine, generating visual associations and dynamics with the aim of communicating at a sensorial level and going beyond what is visible. 

BIOGRAPHY

Martina Zanin was born in San Daniele del Friuli in 1994 and she now lives and works in Milan. She is a visual artist who works with multiple media, central to her practice are photography, writing, installation, and editorial projects.

Zanin is the author of the photobook I Made Them Run Away, published by Skinnerboox, and Older Than Love, a self-published artist book. In 2021, she won the first prize of Camera Work, and was among the winners of Giovane Fotografia Italiana, Images Gibellina, and Cantica21. Italian Contemporary Art Everywhere, promoted by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MAECI), the Italian Ministry of Culture (MiC), and the Directorate General for Contemporary Creativity. Zanin has been nominated for the Foam Paul Huf Award 2019 and the C/O Berlin Talent Award 2020, two international prestigious awards for visual arts.

Her work has been exhibited in solo and group shows both nationally and internationally, including Fondazione Orestiadi (2023), Benaki Museum (2022), IIC Abu Dhabi (2021), FMAV – Fondazione Modena Arti Visive (2021),  BACO – Base Arte Contemporanea (2021), Spazio Labò (2021), galleria studiofaganel (2021), Fotografia Europea (2021), Fondazione Fabbri (2020), Photo España (2018), Goethe Institute (2017), Palazzo delle Esposizioni (2015). Her works are part of public collections such as MoMA Library, FMAV – Fondazione Modena Arti Visive, BACO – Base Arte Contemporanea, and Fondazione Orestiadi, among others. She has been a guest lecturer at Hong Kong Baptist University, RUFA, University of Trieste, and FMAV – Scuola di Alta Formazione.

SELECTED SOLO SHOWS


2023
Please, don’t ever come down, Foto Forum, Bozen, IT
2022
I Made Them Run Away, Terranova, Barcelona, ES
2021
Older Than Love, IIC Abu Dhabi, Fann À Porter, Dubai, AE
I Made Them Run Away, Spazio Labò, Bologna, IT
I Made Them Run Away, Photo Open Up, Padova, IT
I Made Them Run Away, Palazzo Rasponi 2, Ravenna, IT
I Made Them Run Away, Studio Faganel, Gorizia, IT
2020
I Made Them Run Away, Panoramic Festival, Barcelona, ES
2019
I Made Them Run Away, Leporello, Rome, IT
2018
I Made Them Run Away, JEST, Turin, IT

SELECTED GROUP SHOWS

2023
– Premio Terna – Driving Energy, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome, IT (upcoming)
– Eyes on Tomorrow, Giovane Fotografia Italiana, IIC Tirana (upcoming)
– Human x Nature – The Hunt, Fondazione Pastificio Cerere, Rome, IT (upcoming)
– Molteplicità, Gibellina PhotoRoad, Fondazione Orestiadi, Gibellina, IT
– A Man’s World, Cavallerizza Torino, Turin, IT
2022
– Italian Panorama, BASE Milano, Milan, IT
– Good Advice & Other Recipes, Athens Photo Festival, Benaki Museum, Athens, GR
– AXES-SAM Residency Program, Fonderia 20.9, Verona, IT
2021
Older Than Love, Nuove Acquisizioni – Cantica21, FMAV – Fondazione Modena Arti Visive, Modena, IT
– Metafotografia III, BACO – Base Arte Contemporanea, Bergamo, IT
– RECONSTRUCTION – Giovane Fotografia Italiana, Cortona On The Move, Cortona, IT
– CORPOREA, Studio Faganel, Gorizia, IT
– RECONSTRUCTION – Giovane Fotografia Italiana, Fotografia Europea, Reggio Emilia, IT
– Premio Francesco Fabbri, Fondazione Fabbri, Pieve di Soligo, IT
2020
– SHIFT, Studio Faganel, Gorizia, IT
– Spazio Libero – Immagini per riabitare la città, Reggio Emilia, IT
2019
– AXIS – SAM Residency Program, Bosco Chiesanuova, IT
– Sistemi, Centrale Festival 11, Fano, IT
2018
I Made Them Run Away, PhotoEspana, Madrid, ES
2017
– Be Great, ISFCI, Rome, IT
– Più Culture, Goethe Institute, Rome, IT
2015
– DRD4-7R – Futuro anteriore, Spazio Fontana, Palazzo Esposizioni, Rome, IT
– LA GRANDE ALLUSIONE: 1974-2015, MLAC-Museo Laboratorio di Arte Contemporanea, Rome, IT

SELECTED AWARDS AND RESIDENCIES

2023
Premio Terna | Driving Energy (finalist)
Deloitte Photo Grant (finalist)
Nuovo Forno del Pane Outdoor Edition, MAMbo Bologna (finalist)
2022
Un/fund Grant (shortlist)
2021
LUMA Rencontres Dummy Book Award Arles (finalist)
Images Gibellina (winner)
Images Vevey Book Award (finalist)
Camera Work (winner)
Prix Virginia (finalist)
Cantica21. Italian Contemporary Art Everywhere (winner)
2020
Premio Francesco Fabbri (finalist)
Giovane Fotografia Italiana (finalist)
C/O Berlin Talent Award (nominee)
2019
Foam Paul Huf Award (nominee)
SÅM – Artist Residency Program
2017
Photo Workshop New York Scholarship (winner)

BOOKS

2023
Cantica21. Italian Contemporary Art Everywhere, Silvana Editoriale
2021
Older Than Love, Self-published
I Made Them Run Away, SKINNERBOOX
Metafotografia III, SKINNERBOOX
2020
SHIFT, studiofaganel

SELECTED PRESS AND PUBLICATIONS

«Die Vater-Tochter-Wunde ist tief», exhibition review on Dolomiten Tagblatt der Südtiroler
Older Than Love with text by Gaia Amorello, L’Essenziale Studio vol.05
You Can’t Tame Me, Mother Tongue Magazine #4
VICINO – Portfolio with text by Emanuela Mirabelli, Marie Claire Italia
I Made Them Run Away reviewed by Ilaria Sponda, C4 Journal
I Made Them Run Away reviewed by Matteo Cremonesi, PHROOM
I Made Them Run Away reviewed by Odette England, photo-eye
I libri di fotografia dell’anno, Internazionale
PhMuseum’s Best Photobooks of 2021
Q&A Chiara Bardelli-Nonino and Martina Zanin, Vogue Italia
I Made Them Run Away, L’Essenziale
Ricordi che non scappano via, Internazionale
C41 Questions On: Printed Narratives with Martina Zanin
Metafotografia – Linguaggi di confine, Internazionale
I Made Them Run Away, Vostok Magazine (vol.28)
New Photography – Martina Zanin, ATP Diary
Research, Faith, and Identity of Two Astrological Twins, PhMuseum
SAM Lessinia Residency, ATP Diary
I Made Them Run Away, Unseen Magazine #7
I Made Them Run Away reviewed by Olga Gambari, La Repubblica
rinnegato, EyesOpen Magazine #8

SELECTED TALKS AND LECTURES

2023
TALK – Cantica21. Presentation of the books with Martina Zanin and Jacopo Valentini, Spazio F, Modena, IT
2022
TEACHER AND TUTOR at Grisart – Escuela Internacional de Fotografía, Barcelona, ES
TALK – Ritratto di Famiglia. Federica Chiocchetti in conversation with Martina Zanin and Sara Perovic, BASE Milano, IT
BOOK PRESENTATION – I Made Them Run Away in conversation with Chiara Capodici and Raffaella Perna, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome, IT
LECTURE on Family Archives – Master in Photographic Archives, University of Trieste, IT
TALK – Retreat of Independent Photographic Publishing, The House of Photography, Pisa, IT
TALKMetafotografia with Martina Zanin, Elio Grazioli, Riccardo Panattoni, University of Verona, IT
LECTUREThe present state of the arts, Hong Kong Baptist University, CN
2021
BOOK PRESENTATION – I Made Them Run Away in conversation with Sara Occhipinti, studiofaganel, Gorizia, IT
MASTERCLASS – RUFA, Rome, IT
LECTURE – Spazio Labo’, Bologna, IT
TALK – Martina Zanin presents I Made Them Run Away in conversation with Daria Tuminas at 10x10photobooks #INSTAsalons
LECTURE – FMAV – Scuola di Alta Formazione, Modena, IT
TALK – I Made Them Run Away at PhMuseum Days, Bologna, IT
TALKSpeciale Giovane Fotografia Italiana #08, Cortona On the Move, IT
TALKDa Reggio Emilia a Cortona. Sinergie per la Giovane Fotografia Italiana – Nuove prospettive di immaginazione, Fotografia Europea, IT

COLLECTIONS

  • Fondazione Orestiadi, Gibellina
  • MEP – La Maison Européenne de la Photographie
  • MoMA Library
  • BACO – Base Arte Contemporanea Odierna
  • Biblioteca Panizzi, Municipality of Reggio Emilia
  • Fondazione Modena Arti Visive, Galleria Civica di Modena
  • Palazzo Rasponi II, Municipality of Ravenna

EDUCATION

2020 Creative Writing, Scuola Omero, Rome, IT
2018/19 Plastic Arts, Scuola Nicola Zabaglia, Rome, IT
2018 «Exhibit – Know How», MAXXI – Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo, Rome, IT
2017/18 MA in Contemporary Photography, IED Madrid, ES
2017 Workshop with Phillip Toledano, Pratt Institute, New York, US
2013/16 BA Honors in Photography, ISFCI, Rome, IT