We’re just halfway through 2025, but the 2026 Winter Olympic Games will be here before we know it. The excitement around the Games hosted in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, is already mounting, with efforts like the Art Posters of Milano Cortina 2026 projects setting the tone. Led by Fondazione Milano Cortina 2026 and Triennale Milano, in collaboration with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), the Art Posters project invited 10 young Italian artists to interpret the spirit of the Games, merging art, sport, and contemporary culture in the process. The original works will be exhibited at Triennale Milano through March.
Spanning oil, gouache, acrylic, digital drawing, and mixed media, the Milano Cortina 2026 posters celebrate sport, unity, and the vibrancy of contemporary Italian art. The artists selected to create the Olympics posters were all female. Among the chosen artists, Giorgia Garzilli, Beatrice Alici, Flaminia Veronesi, Maddalena Tesser, and Martina Cassatella have answered a few of our questions about their poster and process below. Curator Damiano Gullì has also reflected on the project as a whole.
Giorgia Garzilli
What ideas are you attempting to communicate in your poster?
The intention was to evoke the fun and joy experienced by both athletes and sports enthusiasts during the Games, beyond the focus and emotions for the competition itself.
What personal influences did you draw upon for your interpretation of an Olympics poster?
I was inspired by a toy I had as a kid: a plastic ice cream cone that could launch the scoop into the air when you pressed a button. As a kid, I often used it to mark the start of games like running races or “capture the flag.”
What was your process like for bringing your poster to life?
I simply sat down at the table and sketched the idea I had in mind.
Beatrice Alici
What ideas are you attempting to communicate in your poster?
With Silver Peaks, I wanted to evoke the typical snowy Alpine landscape under a leaden winter sky. In this vast mountain setting, I depicted athletes paired with Olympic symbols: a skier carrying a banner with the five rings, a figure skater holding the Olympic torch, and a hockey player captured in a dynamic pose. These three athletes are meant to represent the number of champions on the podium — a meaning reinforced by the use of medal materials: silver leaf for the sky, and gold and copper leaf for the torch.
Beyond the reference to competition, the use of an ancient technique like gilding recalls its long tradition in art history, adding a sense of sacredness to sporting disciplines.
What personal influences did you draw upon for your interpretation of an Olympics poster?
I was definitely influenced by countless memories from my childhood up until around age 14 or 15, when I spent my Christmas holidays skiing with my family in South Tyrol. One year, I even competed in amateur races on the weekends. At the time, I had a fair bit of success in skiing— I won a trophy and a few medals.
What was your process like for bringing your poster to life?
The process began with researching the Olympics and looking at posters created by artists over the years. Right away, just as I usually do in my painting practice, I focused on building the landscape by researching photographic references of the mountains around Cortina. Then I collected photos of Olympic athletes and began sketching different compositional options.
A recurring element in my work is the use of monochromatic oil painting. In this case, I painted the entire piece in various shades of cool grey. Almost at the last minute, I had the idea of using metallic leaf— something I’d never tried before. I had to consult friends and search online to learn how to do it.
Flaminia Veronesi
What ideas are you attempting to communicate in your poster?
It’s an image that celebrates daydreaming and the power of games to create parallel worlds where one can challenge oneself while having fun.
When we play, we enter a dimension where everything carries the same lightness as imagination. In this sense, games teach us to dream, to fail, and to try again— to transform ourselves and the world around us.
What personal influences did you draw upon for your interpretation of an Olympics poster?
As my artistic practice is rooted in play, fantasy and wonder, I focused on the ability of games to create joyful spaces where wonder overcomes fear.
What was your process like for bringing your poster to life?
By having as much fun as possible while making it.
Maddalena Tesser
What ideas are you trying to communicate in your poster?
The image I created is designed to be simple and harmonious using only the colors that represent the continents at the Olympics.
The subject refers to a dimension of imagination, bodily memory, and identification with the environment. It is an instant of full energy that unites soul, body, and nature.
What personal influences did you use for your interpretation of an Olympic poster?
I reflected on the idea that daily practice—doing art, doing sport or playing music—can bring strength and self-awareness to each of us. I find it very important to engage fully through the body, with the spirit, with willpower, and enjoyment, but also with effort.
What was your process to bring your poster to life?
Lots of designs. Several initial drafts, quick and spontaneous, helped me explore the possibilities of different subjects. Then, once I had identified the one that felt most effective and closest to my deepest feelings, I worked to create harmony within the image— through the softness of the pictorial gesture, the composition of space, and the choice of suitable color juxtapositions. Sometimes you need to give a lot to achieve something small, but truly valuable.
Martina Cassatella
What ideas are you trying to communicate in your poster?
At the heart of my poster lies a fundamental idea: the principle of universality. It speaks to the human being’s sense of belonging to a greater whole, and to the ability to embrace difference as an opportunity. In this spirit, the Games become a catalyst for encounter and mutual discovery. I sought to convey the value of collectivity through the image of intertwined hands, raised in a shared gesture of exultation, that transform into the Olympic torch: a symbol of fire, and thus of transformation, innovation, and, above all, light.
What personal influences did you draw upon for your interpretation of an Olympics poster?
Among my principal references are certainly the works of Georges de La Tour, who is a key player in my art in general, and specifically, the delicate way light filters through hands. I also explored videos and imagery from the opening and closing ceremonies of the Winter Olympics, where ritual becomes a powerful symbol of unity and shared humanity. My research extended to the fire rituals of solstice celebrations, which honor the symbolic triumph of light over darkness, and to the figure of the torchbearer, who, through the journey of the flame, carries a message of light and peace to the world.
What was your process like for bringing your poster to life?
The creation of my art poster began with the careful organization of visual notes, a necessary gesture to shape the idea I aspired to bring to life. I started with sketches in chalk and moved to oil on canvas, where darker tones initially dominated, setting a foundation quite distant from the final composition. Through a process of repetition, revisiting the image across various mediums and interpretations, I gradually understood which elements deserved to remain and which to fade away. It became evident that light had to emerge as the true protagonist. I had considered making the flame a more explicit presence, but later realized it need not be overtly described; a subtle suggestion would suffice. The work, I concluded, needed to speak through light, radiating warmth and luminosity from within.
Damiano Gullì – Curator
Each poster is like a single tile that forms a larger mosaic.
What was your overarching vision for the Olympic Games Milano Cortina 2026 poster collection?
The Art Posters have been among the most meaningful expressions of the cultural legacy of the Games since the early 20th century. They have accompanied each Olympic and Paralympic edition, narrating its essence through the contemporary gaze of artists.
Working on this collection has therefore represented a real challenge, an extraordinary opportunity, and a great responsibility. The true challenge lies in conveying the values of the Games to everyone, as they carry a universal message.
I chose to involve in the project ten young Italian artists, who, with their visions and poetics, seemed to possess the sensitivity needed to take on this task. It is also amazing to be able to offer them an opportunity to share their work, both in Italy and internationally.
The result is an extraordinary interaction between art and sport, creative freedom, and universal values.
Left: Beatrice Alici
Right: Flaminia Veronesi
What was your process of selecting the poster artists?
The selection of artists stems from the ongoing work of promoting and supporting the Italian art scene carried out by Triennale Milano in recent years.
A key milestone for many of the artists involved in the Art Posters project was their participation in Italian Painting Today, an exhibition I curated for Triennale in 2023, which is currently open in Buenos Aires with a special focus on artists under 35. In 2026, the exhibition will be presented in Brasilia, Rio de Janeiro and Mexico City.
That exhibition served as the starting point for the Art Poster project, reinforcing Triennale’s commitment to spotlighting a new and emerging scene, and promoting it on an international stage.
It felt like a beautiful and meaningful opportunity to involve these under-40 artists in a project that invites a choral and multifaceted creative interpretation of the Games.
Martina Cassatella
What are some of your favorite details or visual moments in this collection of posters? What common threads do you see connecting the designs?
To be honest, I truly appreciate the whole collection. The preparatory work was both very enriching and stimulating: a constant dialogue with the artists and the Fondazione Milano Cortina 2026 team that made each poster unique and special. Each poster is like a single tile that forms a larger mosaic. One that tells a story of joy, sharing, commitment, emotion and solidarity, but also of healthy competition and exchange.
Through their works, the artists have freely and originally managed to perfectly merge their individual visions and poetics with the spirit of the upcoming Olympic and Paralympic Games. They have enthusiastically and passionately conveyed the values of the Games, drawing attention to gestures, symbols, atmospheres, and imagery, as well as to the places, environments, and nature that will be the unique backdrop for the Games.
Figurative language is strongly present in the posters and, at times, creates a dialogue with abstraction. This is a distinctive quality of much contemporary Italian painting, which breaks down rigid boundaries between abstraction and figuration in favor of fluid, highly expressive modes. These practices also draw from everyday imagery—cinema, graphic design, and social media—to propose a kind of painting that speaks powerfully to the present moment.
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