The Nivola Foundation announces Nairy Baghramian as the recipient of the 2023 Nivola Award for Sculpture.

Previously bestowed upon Eduardo Chillida and Cy Twombly, the Nivola Award, which resumes in 2023 after a long hiatus, celebrates artists who embody the spirit of Costantino Nivola (Orani 1911 - East Hampton 1988) through their artistic exploration in the contemporary context. Nivola, a sculptor, painter, and graphic designer, pursued an idea of art that transcended disciplinary boundaries, merging architecture and design, and sought to develop the individual’s potential, the relationship with the community, environmental sustainability, and the combination of design thinking with manual skills.

Throughout a career spanning over two decades, Baghramian skillfully explores the boundaries between space, form, and material. Her daring and incisive sculptural works invite reflection on the dynamics of human relationships and the complexity of social structures. Through a wide range of materials and techniques, Baghramian challenges traditional sculptural conventions, creating works that defy definitions and reveal new perspectives.

The award ceremony will occur at the Nivola Museum on 16 September 2023. In the summer of 2024, the artist’s exhibition, curated by Giuliana Altea, Antonella Camarda and Luca Cheri, will follow. 

“It is a pleasure for me to feel connected to the work of Constantino Nivola through the award,” says Baghramian. “I first encountered his works through the invitation to the Nivola Museum by Giuliana Altea and Antonella Camarda in Sardinia and later in urban spaces, public schools, and housing projects in New York. His abstract modernist sculptures and reliefs, as a conglomerate of politically formal considerations of the post-war period, are a reminder of the socio-political potential of art today and in the future. For me, these complex formations are a plea for the democratic potential of the art of Constantino Nivola, who had to flee to the USA as an anti-fascist.”