It is one of the most anticipated moments of every edition of the COMEL Award. After weeks of work and a careful evaluation of all submitted artworks, the jury has selected the 13 artists who will take part in the concluding exhibition of the XIII and final edition of the COMEL Award, scheduled at Spazio COMEL Contemporary Art Gallery in Latina from October 17 to November 7, 2026.

More than 200 applications were received from Italy, numerous European countries, and even from other parts of the world (Australia, China, Colombia, Ecuador, Japan, Iran, and Mexico). Although submissions from outside Europe cannot be admitted to the competition, they testify the growing international attention the Award has earned over the years.

The selection was far from simple. The jury explored a rich and diverse landscape of languages, techniques, and interpretations of aluminium, tasked with identifying the works that best enhance the expressive potential of the metal while also interpreting the theme of this final edition, “Future Intertwinings.”

Sculpture, painting, installation, and engraving thus reveal—through different sensibilities and artistic paths—the many possibilities of a material that, within the COMEL Award, has become over the years not only matter to be shaped, but an opportunity for experimentation, research, and the creation of new ideas.

Their works will be the protagonists of the exhibition “Aluminium, Future Intertwinings,” guiding the public toward the final chapter of the COMEL Award’s story. An event that will not only be a moment of dialogue between artworks and artists, but also an occasion to celebrate thirteen years of research, encounters, and relationships built around art and aluminium.

During the closing day of the exhibition, on November 7, the winner of the XIII edition of the COMEL Award and the winner of the Public Award—assigned to the artwork most voted by visitors—will be announced.

“Future Intertwinings” is therefore ready to take shape: thirteen works, thirteen artists, and thirteen different ways of interpreting aluminium will meet in Latina for the final exhibition of the COMEL Award, in an interweaving of visions that looks toward the future precisely at the moment when an important journey comes to an end.

The 13 finalists:

Caterina Arcuri (Catanzaro) — sculpture and installation

Roberta Bertazzini (Turin) — sculpture and installation

Mariangela Cacace (Vituliano, CE) — painting

Irene Capuano (Monte di Procida, NA) — painting

Giulia Facchin (Cornedo Vicentino, VI) — sculpture and installation

Giulia Fulgenzi Maiesta (Santa Maria Nuova, AN) — sculpture and installation

Dimitri Likissas (Bruges, Belgium – St. Maarten, Greece) — sculpture and installation

Paola Maccioni (Vicenza) — engraving

Ferruccio Maierna (Montecompatri, RM) — sculpture and installation

Frank Martinageli (Melbourne/Rome) — engraving

Nadia Nespoli (Cormano, MI) — painting

Diana Pintaldi (Rome) — sculpture and installation

Caterina Zen (Cittadella, PD) — painting

The Jury: Giorgio Agnisola, president of the jury and artistic director of the Award, art critic, writer, and professor emeritus of Sacred Art and Cultural Heritage at the Theological Faculty of Southern Italy; Mariantonietta Picone Petrusa, writer, scholar, and professor emeritus of Contemporary Art History at the University Federico II of Naples; Ilia Tufano, artist, scholar, lecturer, and gallery owner; Federico Romanelli Montarsolo, president and founder of the Montarsolo Association – AMITALIA; Maria Gabriella Mazzola, representing COMEL Industrie, the promoter company and sole sponsor of the Award.