MTArt Agency Art Selection Committee interviews series: Sveva D’Antonio Taurisano

Each month, MTArt Agency reviews 200 portfolios of artists and selects the most exciting up and coming visual artists worldwide. Our selection committee plays a crucial role in finding the talents with the innovative techniques, inspiring content and strong messages we are looking for.

MTArt is incredibly proud to welcome Sveva D’Antonio Taurisano as a new member of the committee. Sveva, together with her husband Francesco, represents the new generation of the Collezione Taurisano, a private collection of contemporary art based in Naples founded by Francesco’s father, Paolo Taurisano in the 1970s. The collection specialises in Italian art from the 1970s and includes key works from the Transavanguardia movement, from the Nouveau Realisme and the Nuclear Movement. With almost 400 pieces to date, the collection’s primary focus is now on living artists exploring the most pressing issues of our time.

Sveva, in your opinion how can art be a vehicle for positive change?

Art can be a fantastic driving force for revolutionary ideas through works of visionary artists. I think that art is the highest form of hope and this can be seen with the interaction and engagement of people with performance art and any participatory project that involves the local community.

What are the challenges you face managing such an important collection and defining its future development?

We want to keep the artists at the centre of our activity as collectors.  We focus on supporting the artists  and that’s what we want to work on for the future.

We try to be coherent with our choices and to keep a strong ethic in an art system where there are no written rules and a lot of shady behaviours.

As an Italian art collector, what are your primary responsibilities to promote inclusive developments in the art system?

Art puts us in a raised state of awareness and gives us food for thought. So we need to be very receptive of the needs of the artists, now more than ever. A lot of things in the art system are not acceptable anymore and artists are asking for change. We need to provide a more sustainable model for all the actors in the art system. We need to support women artists, give them more museum shows, more voice in public speeches all over the world. Artists need to be protected and have more guarantees from the state as well in terms of subsidies, and the government should invest in culture and reduce taxes for art purchases which are still very high in Italy.

How do you imagine your collection in 10 years?

We don’t need art in order to live, but we can’t live without it. I imagine that our collection will continue to grow with the artists we feel a connection with and that we will support them in every possible way. The collection is our life so it will live until we die. After this we hope that someone will recognize the importance of the narrative that every artwork in our collection has brought us and will share it with the future generation. I imagine that this “someone” will be a public institution or something similar.

What are you most excited about regarding MTArt’s model and your art selection committee position? 

The team of MTArt agency is mainly composed of women and I like it a lot! It also promotes women artists’ empowerment through the works of their female artists. I appreciate and truly believe in the importance of public projects that involve more and more people from the general public, and making them aware of serious issues like our environment, the help and mutual support to the other human beings and the political consciousness of the time we are living in.

What are you looking forward to doing the most as a newly appointed MTArt art selection committee member? 

I can’t wait to see the works of new artists. I’d love to discover new talents that are fully committed to the message they want to communicate. I am looking forward to sharing my vision as an art collector with the other amazing and inspiring members of the committee. I think it’s going to be a great and fulfilling experience because I believe in a shared art experience which is the compulsive result of humanity’s urge to open its heart.

 

Sveva is the first interviewee of our Art Selection Committee series.

Stay tuned for more interviews introducing the wonderful people who help us spot the best talents out there.

Check out all our MTArt Artists here.