Echoes and reflections - the glass of fashion. The Prada Galleria handbag, an eternal Prada icon, is celebrated alongside an icon of popular culture, the internationally acclaimed actor Scarlett Johansson, bathed in vivid, expressive color by Venezuelan-American artist Alex Da Corte.

A Tony and BAFTA award winner, and two-time Academy Award nominee, Johansson is globally recognized for the precision and passion of her craft - her innate ability to transform and embody multiple personae, different identities and ideals. In essence, she is herself a reflection, a refraction - interpreting and embodying another individual, bringing her own inherent qualities to her depiction.

Evolving an ongoing dialogue between Prada and fine artists to reconsider the relationship between Prada icons and iconic cultural figures, here, Johansson’s indelible image is reimagined by the conceptual artist. Da Corte’s works span a range of media - video, performance, installation, painting, sculpture - and this is his first work living in a fashion context. Drawing on Pop and Surrealism, on a tension between high and popular culture, his work creates fantastical, vividly-hued and all-encompassing artistic environs to explore the same notions of humanity Johansson brings to her work.

In the Galleria campaign, Johansson transforms constantly, framed and reframed by a sublimation of the everyday, translated into pure color. Color is innately synched to emotion, universally evocative of feelings. And, similarly recollective of collective experience and memories, there are shadows of poses, attitudes and situations we recognize - and, in turn, Johansson’s own global fame is reflected, enhanced and resonant in these images.

As this Hollywood icon is transformed and recontextualized through color, so is the Prada Galleria, its silhouette a canvas for an exploration of shades and patterns. Here, the Galleria itself serves as a unique mirror, of the transformed world that surrounds it.
 

Credits
Talent: Scarlett Johansson
Concept, Artwork and Direction: Alex Da Corte
Creative Direction: Ferdinando Verderi

Biographies:

Alex Da Corte is a Venezuelan-American artist. He is currently the subject of Fresh Hell at the 21^st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa, Japan, a survey of his film works in a geometric sculptural design and a follow-up and mirror image of Mr. Remember, a survey of sculpture, painting and installation including film at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, Denmark in 2022. His most recent film ROY G BIV premiered at the 2022 Whitney Biennial; in 2021, he was the recipient of the Roof Garden Commission for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. From November 2020 to January 2021, his site-specific intervention Rubber Pencil Devil, presented by Prada with the support of Fondazione Prada, was exhibited at Prada Rong Zhai, Shanghai. Da Corte participated in the Biennale di Venezia May You Live in Interesting Times and the 57^th Carnegie International, Pittsburgh in 2019. He has presented solo exhibitions at the Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne (2018); Secession, Vienna (2016); Art + Practice, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2016); MASS MoCA, North Adams, Massachusetts (2016); Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam (2015); and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia (2014, together with Jayson Musson). Da Corte lives and works in Philadelphia.

Scarlett Johansson is an internationally known actress and producer. She is the recipient of several accolades, including a Tony Award and a BAFTA Award, as well as nominations for two Academy Awards and five Golden Globe Awards. She made her film debut in the fantasy comedy North (1994) and gained early recognition for her roles in Manny & Lo (1996), The Horse Whisperer (1998), and Ghost World (2001). Johansson shifted to adult roles in 2003 with her performances in Lost in Translation, which won her a BAFTA Award for Best Actress, and Girl with a Pearl Earring. Other works include Match Point (2005), The Prestige (2006) and Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008); and the albums Anywhere I Lay My Head (2008) and Break Up (2009), both of which charted on the Billboard 200. In 2010, Johansson debuted on Broadway in a revival of A View from the Bridge, which won her a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress and began playing the role of Black Widow in the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Iron Man 2. She received critical acclaim and two Academy Award nominations for her roles in the drama Marriage Story and the satire Jojo Rabbit (both 2019).