Portrait of Frances Stark Photo by Bobby Jesus Courtesy the artist
The winners of the 2015 Absolut Art Award have just been announced.
The 2015 prize for Art Work is awarded to Frances Stark and the prize for Art Writing is awarded to Mark Godfrey. Frances Stark was awarded the prize for Art Work for her proposal to realise a pedagogical opera, mixing music and education to tell a recent history of America. Curator and writer Mark Godfrey was awarded the prize for Art Writing for his proposal to edit an anthology dedicated to ‘The Black Art Debate’ and African America art in the 1960s and 70s.
As the winning artist, Frances Stark will receive a cash stipend of €20,000, complemented by a budget of €100,000 to produce and exhibit a new artwork or project. As the winning writer, Mark Godfrey will receive a cash prize of €20,000, complemented by a budget of €25,000 for the development and publication of a new art publication, in collaboration with a leading publishing house.
Led by 2015 Jury President Massimiliano Gioni, Artistic Director at the New Museum in New York and at the Fondazione Nicola Trussardi in Milan, the distinguished international Jury comprising of Magali Arriola, Negar Azimi, Doryun Chong and Jessica Morgan, selected the winners based on their proposals to create a new artwork, project or piece of art writing, unencumbered by commercial constraints.
“I am thrilled with this year’s winners. The two winning projects share an interest in education and in exploring histories across cultural boundaries. Each in their own field, Frances Stark and Mark Godfrey have proven to be original thinkers who are helping to reshape the boundaries of art and criticism respectively: the Jury and everyone at Absolut is excited to allow the winners to expand the horizons of their research and help them produce works which we are sure will be ground-breaking and thought provoking,” said Massimiliano Gioni, 2015 Jury President.
