Alessia Cargnelli’s (b. 1990, Trieste, Italy) is a visual artist and researcher based in Belfast.

Alessia is a former co-director of the artist-led initiative Catalyst Arts (2016-2018) and and currently a PhD researcher at the Belfast School of Art, with a combined theory and practice-based study on artists collectives and feminist-led collectives dedicated to social justice, civil action and activism in the island of Ireland.

She was 2020-21 Research Associate at the Centre for Contemporary Art of Derry~Londonderry. She completed a BFA (with Hons) in Visual and Performing Arts at IUAV University and MA (with Hons) in Contemporary Art History at Ca’Foscari University in Venice, Italy.

With a background visual arts and art history, subsequently informed by artist-led initiatives and collaborative productions, Alessia’s interests expand towards alternative forms of education, feminist methodologies, collective self-organisations and artists-run-models, activism, archive-informed art practices and artist moving image production and programming.

Along with artist Emily McFarland, she is co-founder of Soft Fiction Projects (2018-ongoing), an artist-run initiative focused on the exploration of underrepresented voices, oppositional histories, geopolitical narratives underpinned by intersectional feminist perspectives which challenge and reframe dominant hegemonic power structures - using printed and digital matter as a vehicle of dissemination.

Alessia is a member of Array Collective, a Belfast-based group who create collaborative actions and performances in response to the socio-political issues affecting the North of Ireland, including gender equality, reproductive rights and human rights. Array Collective is the winner of the 2021 Turner Prize.