Absolut has just announced a new strand of their Absolut Art Award – the Emerging Artist Award – which will sit alongside the Absolut Art Award for Art Work and Art Writing. Individuals under the age of 40 who have collaborated with the brand creatively from January 2015 to February 2017 are eligible to be nominated by their local Absolut teams.
Coco Fusco Dangerous Moves: Performance and Politics in Cuba Winner of the 2013 Absolut Art Award for Art Writing Los Carpinteros Conga Irreversible (2012) Havana Biennial Photo Credit: Ivorypress, Madrid / Sean Kelly Gallery, New York / Galeria Fortes Vilaça, São Paulo © Los Carpinteros, Ignacio Barrios
The winner of the first Emerging Artist Award will be chosen from the list of nominees by the distinguished 2017 Absolut Art Award Jury. They will receive a cash prize of €20,000, along with a budget of €25,000 to realise their winning project or art work in their region.
Also announced was the new Jury for the 2017 Absolut Art Award, led by newly-appointed Jury President Daniel Birnbaum, Director of the Moderna Museet, Stockholm. The international Jury for the 2017 Absolut Art Award comprises four additional distinguished art world figures: Simon Castets, Director and Curator of Swiss Institute, New York; Elena Filipovic, Director and Chief Curator of Kunsthalle Basel; Polly Staple, Director of Chisenhale Gallery, London; and Jack Bankowsky, critic, curator and Editor-at-Large at Artforum.
The Absolut Art Award offers an artist and an art writer a unique opportunity to realise their dream project, unencumbered by commercial restraints, and demonstrates our continued commitment to supporting and collaborating on transformative projects with the world’s most interesting creative talent.
Each member of the 2017 Jury will invite two nominators, who range across multiple artistic disciplines and professional art backgrounds, to nominate five artists and one art writer unrestricted by age or geography, generating a maximum of fifty nominees for the Art Work category and a maximum of ten nominees for the Art Writing category. The Jury will select one winner in each category from a final shortlist of five artists and five art writers.
The winner of the Absolut Art Award for Art Work will receive a cash prize of €20,000 complemented by a budget of €100,000 to produce and exhibit a new art work or project, and the winning art writer will be awarded a cash prize of €20,000 along with a budget of €25,000 to be used towards the research and production of a new art publication.
The winners of the three Absolut Art Award strands – Art Work, Art Writing, and Emerging Artist Award – will be announced during the Vernissage of La Biennale di Venezia – 57th International Art Exhibition in May 2017, followed by an award ceremony in September 2017 in Stockholm, Sweden.
“We are delighted to announce this year’s Jury and begin our search for the winners of the 2017 Absolut Art Award. The Award offers artists and art writers the opportunity to realise their dream project and it is great to be able to support creative talent in this way. The new part of the Award – the Emerging Artist Award – will also continue our commitment to supporting young creatives”
says Saskia Neuman, Global Art Manager, Absolut, and Director of the Absolut Art Award.
