Martina Zanin
(San Daniele del Friuli – 1994)
Biografia.
BIOGRAPHY
Martina Zanin is an Italian artist who lives and works in Milan. Zanin’s practice spans photography, writing, installation, sculpture, and artist books.
Her work has been exhibited in solo and group shows both nationally and internationally, including Fondazione AGO, Modena (2025); GNAMC – Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Rome (2024); IIC Toronto (2024); Cassina Projects, Milan (2024); Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome (2023); Foto Forum, Bozen (2023); Fondazione Orestiadi, Gibellina (2023); Benaki Museum, Athens (2022); IIC Abu Dhabi (2021); FMAV – Fondazione Modena Arti Visive (2021); BACO – Base Arte Contemporanea, Bergamo (2021); galleria studiofaganel, Gorizia (2021); Fotografia Europea, Reggio Emilia (2021); Goethe Institute, Rome (2017).
In 2024, she is among the finalists of the Talent Prize InsideArt. She won the Premio Terna 2023 (youth) with her installation Dear F. In 2021, she won the first prize of Camera Work, and was among the recipients of Giovane Fotografia Italiana and Cantica21. Italian Contemporary Art Everywhere, promoted by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MAECI), the Italian Ministry of Culture (MiC). Zanin is the author of the photobook I Made Them Run Away, published by Skinnerboox, and Older Than Love, a self-published artist book.
Her works are part of public collections such as MoMA Library (New York); Haas Library, Yale University (New Haven); Fondazione AGO (Modena); MEP – La Maison Européenne de la Photographie (Paris); Fondazione Orestiadi (Gibellina). She has been a guest lecturer at Hong Kong Baptist University, RUFA, University of Trieste, NABA, and FMAV – Scuola di Alta Formazione.
Main solo exhibitions: Every Caress, A Blow, Fondazione Pastificio Cerere, Roma (2026); I Made Them Run Away, IIC Toronto, CA (2024); Please, don’t ever come down, Foto Forum, Bozen, IT, (2023); I Made Them Run Away, Terranova, Barcelona, ES (2022); Older Than Love, IIC Abu Dhabi, Fann À Porter, Dubai, AE (2021); I Made Them Run Away, Spazio Labò, Bologna, IT (2021); I Made Them Run Away, Palazzo Rasponi II, Ravenna, IT (2021); I Made Them Run Away, Studio Faganel, Gorizia, IT (2021); I Made Them Run Away, Panoramic Festival, Barcelona, ES (2020); I Made Them Run Away, Leporello, Rome, IT (2019); I Made Them Run Away, JEST, Turin, IT (2018)
Main group exhibitions: Passaggi/Paesaggi, Fondazione Ago Modena, Modena, IT (2025); Talent Prize InsideArt, GNAMC – Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Rome, IT (2024); Il gioco delle Identità, Roma Arte in Nuvola, Rome, IT (2024); After Reminiscence, Cassina Projects, Milan, IT (2024); Premio Terna – Driving Energy, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome, IT (2023); Human x Nature – The Hunt, Fondazione Pastificio Cerere, Rome, IT (2023); Molteplicità, Gibellina PhotoRoad, Fondazione Orestiadi, Gibellina, IT (2023); A Man’s World, Cavallerizza Torino, Turin, IT (2023); Italian Panorama, BASE Milano, Milan, IT (2022); Good Advice & Other Recipes, Benaki Museum, Athens, GR (2022); AXES-SAM Residency Program, Fonderia 20.9, Verona, IT (2022); Older Than Love, Nuove Acquisizioni – Cantica21, FMAV – Fondazione Modena Arti Visive, Modena, IT (2021); Metafotografia III, BACO – Base Arte Contemporanea, Bergamo, IT (2021); RECONSTRUCTION – Giovane Fotografia Italiana, Cortona On The Move, Cortona, IT (2021); CORPOREA, Studio Faganel, Gorizia, IT (2021); RECONSTRUCTION – Giovane Fotografia Italiana, Fotografia Europea, Reggio Emilia, IT (2021); Premio Francesco Fabbri, Fondazione Fabbri, Pieve di Soligo, IT (2021); SHIFT, Studio Faganel, Gorizia, IT (2020); Spazio Libero – Immagini per riabitare la città, Reggio Emilia, IT (2020); AXIS – SAM Residency Program, Bosco Chiesanuova, IT (2019); Sistemi, Centrale Festival 11, Fano, IT (2019); I Made Them Run Away, PhotoEspana, Madrid, ES (2018); Più Culture, Goethe Institute, Rome, IT (2017); DRD4-7R – Futuro anteriore, Spazio Fontana, Palazzo Esposizioni, Rome, IT (2015); LA GRANDE ALLUSIONE: 1974-2015, MLAC-Museo Laboratorio di Arte Contemporanea, Rome, IT (2015)
Statement
Rooted in the intensity of her personal experience, Zanin’s work questions the dynamics of power and authority within family relationships, placing particular emphasis on the fragile boundary between protection and control. Her practice spans photography, writing, installation, and artist’s books, hybridizing and layering languages and materials. Her works manifest in a dimension of attraction and repulsion, vulnerability and vigilance, recalling the predator-prey dynamic. In this sense, Zanin extends her research to the relationship between human and animal, activating parallels, metaphors, and cross-cutting reflections that bring out tensions and possibilities for transformation. Zanin weaves elements into layered compositions and narratives, assembled through associations, correspondences, or dissonances, creating a multisensory engagement. The production process (which includes actions such as tearing, nailing, hammering, or engraving) and the final work are permeated by contrasts and dualities, representing an approach where control and instinct, attraction and repulsion, tension and tenderness, vulnerability and strength coexist.
