When Attitudes Take Form: A celebration of artists with intellectual disabilities in Italy

Last week, the Italian city of Turin hosted the 2025 Special Olympics World Winter Games, welcoming athletes with intellectual disabilities from over 100 different countries to compete on a global stage.

But the spirit of inclusion didn’t stop at just sports. Running alongside the Games, a celebration of creativity, inclusion and self-expression launched at the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, a non-profit contemporary art museum founded by collector Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in 1995.

Titled When Attitudes Take Form, the exhibition shines a spotlight on the extraordinary talents of thirteen different artists with intellectual disabilities from the Martin and Rebecca Eisenberg Collection.

The Eisenbergs, long-time champions of artists with disabilities, have dedicated their collection to amplifying voices that are often overlooked in the art world. In collaboration with renowned New York curator Matthew Higgs, they have assembled a selection of works that challenge perceptions and celebrate individuality. 

“For many years, the Eisenbergs have been collectors of incredible contemporary paintings in New York City. They have a daughter, Jesse, who has learning difficulties, and they’ve been deeply involved with curators who, about twenty years ago, began profiling artists with similar challenges,” Higgs told Euronews Culture at the opening night of the exhibition. 

He added: “Over time, they built an exceptional collection of this work. Not only have they collected these pieces, but they’ve also actively promoted them and donated them to major institutions. The artists featured here are also represented in the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and many other renowned institutions.”

The artists in the show have a wide range of intellectual and developmental disabilities, including nonverbal autism, schizophrenia, and cognitive impairments, each shaping their artistic output.

“One of the key aspects of the neuro-divergent community is its diversity, much like any other community. Each artist has their own techniques, subject matter, approach to art, preferred scale, and choice of materials. Often, they refine a technique and a creative process that evolves over time," Higgs explained.

Dan Miller, an artist on the autism spectrum and who experiences communication challenges, embraces the power of repetition. His work features a dizzying array of words, letters, names, and numbers, layered into a chaotic yet mesmerising abstraction reminiscent of Jackson Pollock’s style. When Attitudes Take Form showcases three of his brilliant works.

Similarly, Nnena Kalu’s practice is also rooted in repetition and layering. She has been a part of ActionSpace, a London-based organisation supporting artists with learning disabilities, since 1999, and her large-scale installations have gained international recognition. Many of the artists featured in the show have benefited from the rise of dedicated art spaces like ActionSpace that nurture and support neuro-divergent and intellectually disabled artists.

Kalu's drawings and paintings are often produced in pairs, echoing and complimenting one another. One of the exhibition's highlights is her diptych piece Drawing 26, which exemplifies her signature approach to mark-making through movement and repetition. The work features two hypnotic, swirling, vortex-like forms, created in layered lines of black, blue, and purple against a bold yellow background.

For some artists in the show, art is a means to challenge and redefine societal narratives. The late Derrick Alexis Coard, who lived with schizoaffective disorder, used his work to explore themes of Black masculinity, spirituality and faith. A piece spotlighted in the show titled The Vision of Healing features a divine, bearded figure gazing forwards, as a piercing beam of orange light erupts from his eye. Lush, vibrant greenery and blooming flowers surround his form, connecting the spiritual with the natural world.

There's also the wonderfully vibrant work of William Scott, an Oakland-based artist with autism and schizophrenia, who works at Creative Growth, one of the oldest and largest art centres for people with disabilities in the world. Describing himself as an architect, his art is deeply rooted in his own life, with his paintings depicting family members and church congregants to actors, musicians, and civil rights leaders. In much of his work he envisions a utopian San Francisco, “Praise Frisco,” proposing new neighbourhoods, buildings, and community centres.

The exceptional talent of the artists in this exhibition is undeniable. But despite this, disabled people continue to be significantly underrepresented across the arts. A 2023 report commissioned by the British Council revealed that 48% of European arts organisations surveyed presented work by disabled artists less than once a year, while 23% never did so at all.

Higgs believes that exhibitions like When Attitudes Take Form play a vital role in breaking down these barriers in the art world. “The issue for neuro-divergent individuals is often prejudice and ignorance. One way to overcome this is by making their voices and perspectives more visible. Art is a powerful vehicle for this because of its universal appeal."

"One of the most important aspects of this exhibition is that it tells the story of champions. Not only the artists themselves but also the collectors who truly championed this work. These collectors worked tirelessly to navigate the art world, the museum world, and the gallery world, advocating for this art and saying, "This work is absolutely worth seeing."

When Attitudes Take Form runs until 27 April 2025 at Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in Turin, Italy.