MADRID.- Ana Navas, represented by the German gallery Sperling, is the winner of the 15th edition of illySustanArt, the award launched by illycaffè in cooperation with ARCOmadrid for young artists from coffee producing countries, who exhibit their works at the fair. Born in Quito in 1984 and grew up in Venezuela, Ana Navas lives and works in Netherlands. The jury – including Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, collector and founder of Fondazione Sandretto, curator Catalina Lozano, curator and officer in charge of culture of the Ecuador Embassy in Paris Pily Estrada and illycaffè Art Director Carlo Bach - awarded Ana Navas "for her very special way of working art with humor, erasing the boundaries between fine arts and folk art".

Ana applies both an historic and imaginative approach to question the relation between form and function and between “original” and “copied” ordinary and apparently harmless objects. With illySustainArt she has received a prize of 15.000 euro.

illycaffè has renewed its partnership with ARCOmadrid for the 17th year. ARCOmadrid is the international art fair held in Madrid from 23 to 27 February 2022 and this is the 40 (+1) edition.

At ARCOMadrid202, illycaffè has presented illy Art Collection and the matching cans by Mona Hatoum, the visual artist internationally recognised for her poetic and political work, including installations, sculpture, video, photography and works on paper. With this illy Art Collection, reproducing the colours and the patterns of the fishnet grid and olive leaves of the Kefiah, the traditional Arab scarf, the artist tells the story of labour, sacrifice and human relations.

In the illy Caffè area, visitors and exhibitors can explore the new collection and a setting where beauty merges with flavour, surrounded by fine design replicating the graphic patterns of the Lebanese artist and the aroma of the unique illy blend.

illy and contemporary art - illy art collection

Seeking beauty and new forms, exploring them, adding value are the distinguishing features of illy corporate culture. To this end, the Trieste-based company partners with primary contemporary art fairs at global level.

For illycaffè, whose brand values are good, goodness and beauty, contemporary art adds beauty to flavour. The beauty which illycaffè strives for is associated with the Ancient Greek term kalokagathìa, resulting from kalòs (beautiful) and agathòs (good) to create a new meaning in which goodness and beauty become indivisible, one dependent upon the other.

illy Art Collection cups are a tangible expression of this concept, a project launched in 1991, when the company turned an everyday object into a blank canvas, inviting contemporary artists to express their creativity on the outside of an espresso cup that Matteo Thun designed for illy. Over the years, more than one hundred internationally renowned artists have worked on this canvas, from Michelangelo Pistoletto to Marina Abramovic, from Anish Kapoor to James Rosenquist, from William Kentridge to Yoko Ono, from Gillo Dorfles to Robert Wilson, to Ai Weiwei…