RoadShow’s Second Stop: Malesco
Art4Women RoadShow’s Second Stop: Contemporary Art Arrives in Malesco, in the Heart of the “Valley of Painters”
Via Conte Mellerio 54, Malesco (VB), Italy
Friday, 21 August 2026, 11:00 a.m.
Art4Women, an innovative start-up dedicated to fostering connections between contemporary art, businesses and local communities, continues its RoadShow: a travelling exhibition project with a strong social impact that is crossing Italy aboard an electric cargo van, bringing Art4Women’s international community of artists directly into local communities and creating opportunities for dialogue between diverse artistic practices, residents and cultural organisations.
Following its inaugural stop in Sicily, the RoadShow will make its second stop in Malesco, in the province of Verbano-Cusio-Ossola, on Friday, 21 August 2026. From 11:00 a.m. at Via Conte Mellerio 54, the exhibition will present works by Agostino Bergo, Monica Seksich and Giuseppe Scaffidi.
The Malesco stop is the result of a collaboration between Art4Women, the Municipality of Malesco, Associazione Dabartet and MTM – Moriggioeu Technologies of Milan, which supports the initiative as its technology partner.
The choice of Malesco is far from incidental. The village lies in Val Vigezzo, historically known as the “Valley of Painters” for the centuries-old relationship between this Alpine region and the art of painting. From the seventeenth century onwards, generations of artists trained in local workshops and at the historic School of Fine Arts in Santa Maria Maggiore, before taking their talent beyond the borders of the valley. Malesco itself was the birthplace of recognised painters, including the Sotta brothers.
Bringing the RoadShow to a place with such a rich artistic heritage offers Art4Women an opportunity to renew the dialogue between contemporary art and Italy’s smaller towns and villages. The initiative seeks to highlight the identity and cultural heritage of places beyond the country’s major cultural centres, demonstrating how contemporary creativity can take root in longstanding artistic traditions and generate new opportunities for exchange between local communities, visitors and the wider art world.
Agostino Bergo, a Milanese painter, combines rigorous artistic training with a visionary and symbolic approach. Over the years, his work has earned recognition in national competitions and established a consistent presence within the Italian contemporary art scene.
Turin-based Monica Seksich, an artist, illustrator and art director, has developed a body of work rooted in symbolic and archetypal imagery, with a particular focus on representations of the feminine. Her mixed-media works on canvas, glass and Plexiglas are enriched with gold, silver and copper leaf.
Completing the selection is Giuseppe Scaffidi, known as “Spartacus”, a self-taught artist whose practice explores abstract, highly textured painting. Plaster, sand, hemp, pure pigments, cement and reclaimed materials are layered onto the canvas to create sculptural surfaces through a direct and instinctive creative process developed outside traditional academic circles.
Bergo, Seksich and Scaffidi — the first two of whom have previously collaborated on exhibition projects — therefore bring to Malesco a dialogue between distinctly different visual languages — symbolic, archetypal and material-driven — united by a shared impulse to transform matter into image.
The Art4Women RoadShow will continue through 2027, with stops planned across a number of Italian cities and territories, including Como, Cernobbio, Florence, Turin and Genoa. At each destination, Art4Women will work alongside local stakeholders and institutions to build connections between contemporary artistic research and the distinctive cultural identity of each host community.
Information
Art4Women – RoadShow | Second Stop
In collaboration with MTM Srl
Via Conte Mellerio 54
Malesco (VB), Italy
Friday, 21 August 2026, 11:00 a.m.
Press & Contact Information
Art4Women Srl
Via Durando 38, Milan, Italy
+39 02 91157714
www.art4women.com
info@art4women.com
Contacts
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