Massimo Vitali

2025 Honoree / Lifetime Achievement

Massimo Vitali series of Italian beach panoramas began in 1994, in the light of drastic political changes in Italy. He started to observe his fellow countrymen very carefully. He depicted a “sanitized, complacent view of Italian normalities”, at the same time revealing “the inner conditions and disturbances of normality: its cosmetic fakery, sexual innuendo, commodified leisure, deluded sense of affluence, and rigid conformism”. [Whitney Davis, “How to Make Analogies in a Digital Age” in October Magazine, Summer 2006, no. 117, pp. 71-98.]

His large-scale color images have been exhibited worldwide in important museums and foundations including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (New York), Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, (Madrid), Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam), Centre Pompidou (Paris), National d’Art Moderne (Paris), Museo Luigi Pecci (Prato), the Museum of Contemporary Art (Denver).
He has done different editorial commissions for leading publications including New York Times, Vanity Fair, Condé Nast, National Geographic, Vogue Italia, Wallpaper, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, as well as several commercial collaborations with renowned brands like Vilebrequin, Champagne Taittinger, Fontana Milano 1915, HeavenSake, EDRA.

He now lives and works in Lucca, Italy.

Website: www.massimovitali.com

Massimo Vitali portrait by Rainer Hosch