How Tasmania became one of the world’s most exciting art destinations

Helen Ochyra reports on how Tasmania, particularly Hobart, has emerged as a leading global art destination, driven largely by MONA (Museum of Old and New Art). The privately funded museum, founded by art collector David Walsh, recently opened a $100 million AUD wing housing a towering concrete amphitheatre by German artist Anselm Kiefer. Beyond MONA, Hobart hosts the provocative winter festival Dark Mofo, the science-and-culture Beaker Street Festival, and the inaugural Island Readers & Writers Festival, cementing its reputation for cutting-edge arts and culture.

The Forgotten of Art: The Story of Artist Valeria Alberti

I dimenticati dell’arte. La storia dell’artista Valeria Alberti

Valeria Alberti (1930-2011), a courageous, rebellious, and nonconformist Italian artist, had a brief but intense career before disappearing from the art world. Recent research by scholar Manuel Barrese reconstructs her trajectory as the only woman in a circle of artists and intellectuals around poet Emilio Villa and the Galleria Appia Antica. Alberti debuted in 1957 alongside Alberto Sartoris, collaborated with ceramist Mario Molli, and created painted panels for the transatlantic liners Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo. She exhibited at Galleria Ferro di Cavallo and Galleria Azimuth, and received Piero Manzoni's Certificate of Authenticity No. 26 in 1961. Her later work included geometric metal sculptures, but she ultimately vanished from the art scene.