Mehriban Efendi wins prestigious Italian award

/By AzerNews/

By Amina Nazarli

One of Azerbaijan’s most talented artists Mehriban Efendi won a prestigious Italian award called Sandro Botticelli (Italian painter of the Early Renaissance) “For art and talent”.

The prize is to be presented by the Salvatore Russo Foundation for her activities in recent years.

“It is a big honor for me to get such a prestigious Italian prize, which is presented to an artist for his/her quality and activities in the arts. The awarding ceremony will take place at the house-museum of Dante Alighieri in Florence on March 1. The event will be held on the birthday of Sandro Botticelli,” Efendi said.

Sandro Botticelli was a great Italian painter in 15-16 century, a representative of the Florentine school of painting.

Salvatore Russo is the head of "Expo Effel tower" gallery as well as an international curator and art critic.

Earlier, Mehriban Efendi's works were put on display at the Art of the World gallery in Muskegon city in U.S., and the artist received an invitation for a long-term collaboration with the gallery.

The first solo exhibition of Efendi was held in the United States in 2005. Then she participated in the exhibition "Art and Awareness" in Montana; a few of her works were further displayed at the huge electronic billboards "Art Takes Times Square" on Time Square in New York.

The work "Harmony" presented at this exhibition was published in the book "Art Takes Time Square". It was recognized as one of the best works across the world in 2012.