Ilaria Vinci examines how fantasies function as mirrors of reality—revealing, decoding, masking or distorting it. Working across sculpture, installation, drawing and collaborative performance, she explores the power of visual entertainment and how it might be redirected toward a more egalitarian art. Drawing on cultural narratives that persist across time, from sci-fi tropes imagining humanity’s future to fairytales evoking enchanted bonds between humans and nature, Vinci distils storytelling into essential elements—an object, a character, a fragment of setting—positioning viewers as co-authors in constructing meaning.
She holds a BFA from the Brera Academy in Milan and an MFA from ÉCAL in Lausanne. Recent solo and two-person exhibitions include Fantasy Students (Berufsschule Bülach, 2023), Phoenix Philosophy Café (Cabaret Voltaire, Zurich, 2022–2023), and Iris IV (Plymouth Rock and Longtang, Zurich, 2021). Her work has appeared in group exhibitions at Kunsthaus Zürich, Kunsthalle Zürich, Museion Bolzano, MACRO Museum Rome and Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, among others.
Vinci is a finalist for the 2026 Prix Mobilière, was shortlisted for the Swiss Art Award in 2023, and received the Menabrea Art Prize in 2018. Her work is held in the collections of Kunstsammlung Kanton Zürich, Kunstsammlung der Stadt Zürich and MACRO – Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome.
Ilaria Vinci lives and works in Zürich.