5 Italian female artists to keep an eye on

Their names are Rachele Amadori, Nicoletta Saracco, Giulia Sollai, Emma Allegretti e Elena Salmistraro. They come from different regions, backgrounds and styles. But they share many things: all of them are Italian, young and talented. They are illustrators, designers, painters, true poets of images, storytellers capable of inspiring emotions with their works.

Save these names because, once you learn about these artists, you can't help but fall in love with them and their unique art.

Rachele Amadori

Photo credit Simone Biavati

Liquid by Rachele Amadori

Photo credit Sara Gentile

Res Divina by Rachele Amadori

Res Divina by Rachele Amadori

Res Divina by Rachele Amadori

"Metaphoric, narrative, mixed". Rachele Amadori describes with these three adjectives her style, her ability to shape archetypes, symbols and stories, bringing the viewer on a journey of experimentation, spirituality and life.

"Choosing to stay lucidly in history, especially the current one, is not exactly simple: becoming an enzymatic agent is really tough. Art is the channel that can give a shape, a suitable dress, colors and ways of being to the sensitive but infinitely powerful sphere. We could say the iconic, tangible side of the spiritual, personal part." - this is what art means for Rachel.

Each of her works, in fact, shows a fragment of the artist's past: from the difficulties of her childhood and the volunteer service which took her through many different experiences around Italy to the difficult personal period coinciding with the lockdown. For Rachele, art, a passion she inherited from her parents, is an emotional escape, a way to express herself but also a way to connect with others and share emotions. Her path is constantly evolving, but it has already led her to achieve important results such as the Abstract Painting Award of the Bauhaus Gallery in Rome and the participation in the exhibition Barcelona Contemporary 2021 to be held next June at the Valid World Hall Gallery.

Nicoletta Saracco

@niartgallery

@niartgallery

@niartgallery

@niartgallery

@niartgallery

@niartgallery

@niartgallery

@niartgallery

If we think Nicoletta Saracco's story had a title, it should be "the power of color and of a smile". Born in 1990, based in Milan, with a past in the fashion industry as a shoe designer, she found in art salvation, a sort of therapy that helped her to face with strength, resilience and love for life the diagnosis of breast cancer. Nicoletta began to paint during the first lockdown and those works, initially born to keep the mind busy, have become a project combining fashion, art and charity, promoting awareness of prevention against breast cancer: ni.art.gallery. 

"Starting from one painting, a second came, then a third, and so on... until I decided to talk about it with the IEO and thanks to their availability I started the sale and fundraising for research. In fact, part of the proceeds from the paintings is donated to the IEO-CCM Foundation (European Institute of Oncology and Monzino Cardiology Center). - She told G-Club in an interview and then added - Behind the painting, there is my story. There is nothing more beautiful than living in colors. And it is through the power of color that I want to spread this message."

The subject of her colorful paintings (which also became the pattern of sweatshirts and t-shirts made of organic materials)? A madonna, painted without a face so that everyone can associate it with the meaning they prefer.

Giulia Sollai

@la_casetta_dellartista

@la_casetta_dellartista

@la_casetta_dellartista

@la_casetta_dellartista

@la_casetta_dellartista

@la_casetta_dellartista

@la_casetta_dellartista

@la_casetta_dellartista

Giulia Sollai loves the sound of her dog's paws, Disney cartoons, the smell of tomato sauce, pizza margherita, people who fight for the things they believe in and art. She was born in Cagliari in 1986, but lives and works in Bologna, where she studied Visual Arts and Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts and then specialized in Applied Arts and Illustration. She has an eclectic talent thanks to which she has started to work as a visual artist and freelance illustrator in different fields: from publishing to design, from advertising to fashion. Her last major collaboration was with Marella for a t-shirt capsule for spring-summer 2021. For this partnership, Giulia painted six illustrations inspired by the warm season and Italian women "enjoying the beauty of small things". These chic female figures, a bit Modigliani-like, drinking coffee, doing yoga, eating spaghetti, reading a book are the focus of the Sardinian artist's lovely visual universe. Among Giulia's many projects there is also La Casetta dell'Artista, her home-studio which is also an art gallery where several artists exhibit, the Atelier of her T-shirt brand, a cultural space that hosts events, a blog and a real bed & breakfast that hosts artists from all over the world (you can find it on Airbnb).

Emma Allegretti

@allegrettiregretti

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@allegrettiregretti

@allegrettiregretti

@allegrettiregretti

@allegrettiregretti

@allegrettiregretti

@allegrettiregretti

Emma Allegretti never goes anywhere without her Micron pens and Winsor & Newton watercolors, because you never know when the inspiration to paint will come. Roman, with a passion for Tracey Emin and David Hockney, has inherited from her mother, who is also an illustrator, a talent so great that it caught the attention of Alessandro Michele. The designer was fascinated by Emma's visual universe, with its ironic and contemporary female figures who always have their cell phones in their hands, love Prosecco, live in a world of no love and speak with irony and realism about the acceptance of one's body, femininity and feelings. The inspiration for the Gucci Beauty project comes, as for all of Allegretti's works, from her personal experiences, from everyday life, from family, from friends. 

Elena Salmistraro

@elenasalmistraro

@elenasalmistraro

@elenasalmistraro

@elenasalmistraro

@elenasalmistraro

@elenasalmistraro

@elenasalmistraro

@elenasalmistraro

Elena Salmistraro is definitely one of the most original names of the new generation of Italian designers. Milanese, born in 1983, after a three-year degree in Fashion Design and studies in Industrial Design at the Milan Polytechnic, she turned the monsters she drew as a child to exorcise her fears into real ironic, funny and colorful artworks. She began her career with ceramics, then experimented with different forms and materials. The results of her eclectic creativity are the panda Bernardo, the throne Lisetta, Micky Mouse in ceramic, the sideboard Polifemo, the Mata&Grifo mirrors and the Primates collection, the famous monkey-shaped vases, born from a mash-up of inspirations between the African Cercopithecines and Sicilian Teste di Moro. What is common to these projects created with major companies such as Vitra, Lavazza, Alessi, Bosa, De Castelli or Lithea? They are all objects designed to move, items with a soul, which have the power not only to elevate the style of our homes, but also to communicate with people.