The Awards

Statement from the jury:

"The jury is unanimously convinced by the fervor of Ciara Phillips’ commitment to the medium of printmaking, the boldness of her formal and social experiments within it, and the maturity and confidence of her artistic outlook and attainment in general. Her belief in collaborative practice, manifest in her ongoing Workshop project, grows from a set of political and aesthetic concerns that she elaborates and elevates through concerted making.

Beyond her graphic and compositional prowess, Phillips is also a keen spatial thinker, adept at expanding beyond the conventional wall and frame. Without sacrificing seriousness, her work is imbued with a sense of wonder and delight in the serendipity and collaborative nature of this creative process. The jury further believes that Phillips is at an ideal point in her career to both benefit from and bring credit to the prize, giving renewed prominence to the field of printmaking and the Foundation’s role within it."

Statement from the jury:

"The jury has been deeply impressed by the consistent quality in Emma Nishimura’s body of work. The artist explores notions of memory and how history is interpreted and re-negotiated, through a varied use of traditional and contemporary printmaking techniques. From miniscule hand-etched texts used in the topographic contours on maps, to photogravure on paper successfully molded three-dimensionally, the artist incorporates traces of history and individual stories exploring spatial and temporal realities. Nishimura questions the parameters of history through collected stories, inherited narratives, geography and family photos. Her body of work is exquisite and consistent – an exceptional thoroughness is at the core of her art practice."

Roma Auskalnyte, (Lithuania), Christiane Baumgartner (Germany), Andrea Büttner (Germany), Phillip Chen (USA), Weixin Quek Chong (Singapore),Chad Cordeiro & Nathaniel Sheppard III (South Africa), Keith Coventry (Great Britain), Damien De Lepeleire (Belgium), Peter Drew (Australia), Christian Rodriguez Fuentes (Chile), Matjaž Geder (Slovenia), Versia Abeda Harris (Barbados), Mattias Härenstam(Sweden), Merja Isomaa-James (Finland), Hansina Iversen (Faroe Islands), Michael Iveson (Northern Ireland), Heehyun Jeong (South Korea), Koo Jeong A (South Korea), Banele Khoza (South Africa), Michael Kirkman (Great Britain), Thomas Kilpper(Germany), Elias Mung'ora (Kenya), Emma Nishimura (Canada), Octora (Indonesia), Kouseki Ono (Japan), Renata Papišta (Bosnia-Hercegovina), Srikanta Paul (India), Belkis Ramirez (Dominican Republic),Miriam Rudolph (Paraguay), Giancarlo Scaglia (Peru), Bahia Shehab (Lebanon/ Egypt), Shahzhia Sikander (Pakistan/ USA), Viktoria Wendel Skousen (Denmark), Puritip Suriyapatarapun (Thailand), Ephrem Solomon Tegegn (Ethiopia), Thammasin Darunkan (Thailand), Alexander Tovborg (Denmark), Tatu Tuominen (Finland), Nicolás Paris Veléz (Colombia)Marianne Vierø (Denmark), Lee Wagstaff (Great Britain), Bill Woodrow (Great Britain)

Statement from the jury:

"The jury has been deeply impressed by Tauba Auerbach’s substantial body of work and the way that printmaking and graphic art are fully integrated into her artistic practice. In painting, prints, and artists’ books that are at once conceptually rigorous and visually lush, she focuses on abstract patterns – both random and ordered – to explore the structures of logic and perception. From aquatints that play with the dot patterns used in commercial printing; to screenprints whose abstract patterns she made by combining various typographic elements; to an elaborate pop-up book full of colorful three-dimensional geometries; to an artist’s book whose pages are printed with every possible color in the RBG color scale, her work is consistently engaged with the aesthetic, conceptual, and technical parameters of printing. Issues of reproduction, sequencing, and seriality, so fundamental to printmaking, are also at the heart of her vision.

In 2013 she established her own publishing imprint, Diagonal Press, which demonstrates her exceptional commitment to printmaking. The possibilities of publishing as a format in its own right allows Auerbach to maintain artistic autonomy and independent distribution while at the same time allowing her work to reach a broader audience, which is very much within the democratic tradition of printmaking."

Karo Akporiere (Nigeria), Nazgol Ansarinia (Iran), Ewan Atkinson (Barbados), Tauba Auerbach (USA), Benjamin Badock (Germany), Jyotirmoy Dalapati (India), Boris Campos Ernst (Chile), Esther Fleckner (Denmark), Joscelyn E. Gardner (Barbados/Canada), Fuki Hamada (Japan), Johnny Hannah (UK), Samueli Heimonen (Finland), Joseph James (USA/Finland), Jussi Juurinen (Finland), Tom Kosmo (Norway), Katja Mater (Netherlands), Sabine Moritz (Germany), Jon Erik Nyholm (Denmark), Thom Ogonga (Kenya), Kyra Pape (South Africa), Praween Piangchoompu (Thailand), Liliana Porter (Argentine/USA), Julia Rommel (USA), Morten Schelde (Denmark), Andreas Siekmann (Germany), Slavs and Tartars (Eurasia), Josh Smith (USA), Kate Sweetapple (Australia), Elmar Vestner (Germany), Richard Woods (UK), Mojca Zlokarnik (Slovenia).

Statement from the jury:

"Svend-Allan Sørensen was born in 1975 and trained at the Academy of Fine Arts in Odense. He is represented at the National Arts Fund, Museum Jorn in Silkeborg, the ARoS Art Museum in Aarhus and several other Danish collections. He currently lives and works in Odense.

Svend-Allan Sørensen has been called a 'popular modernist'. A traditional graphic artist, he uses nature, especially birds, as a motif, but adds new, personal features both in the way he uses technology and in the content he chooses. It is as important to him to give associative descriptions of nature and birds as it is to depict them: Sørensen’s work contains many words as engraved images, words that represent both humorous and everyday philosophical statements. He moves effortlessly between established graphic techniques, celebrating craftsmanship while adding an ecologically romantic view of nature that is truly contemporary."

Cathrine Dahl and Ørjan Aas (Norway), Daniel Milan (Denmark), Mikael Kihlman (Sweden), Annu Vertanen (Finland), Valgerdur Hauksdòttir (Iceland), Minako Masui (Japan / Sweden), Ane Mette Hol (Norway), Hugleikur Dagsson (Iceland), Svend-Allan Sørensen (Denmark), Tuula Lehtinen (Finland), Vappu Johansson (Finland), Elina Sipilä (Finland), Adam Saks ( Denmark).

Statement from the jury:

"Tiina Kivinen (born 1971) has for years devoted herself to the art of mezzotint. This is an intaglio printmaking technique dating back as far as 1650, and is seldom used by artists today. It is a time-consuming technique that is particularly suited to the production of nuances in black and grey tones.

Kivinen’s work is distinguished by the small size of her prints, which reflects the pace at which she works. After a plate has been used several times the artist often gives it a new life, changing it and using it in her subsequent work. Nature in a clear and minimalistic form has been and continues to be the central focus of Kivinen’s art. Her works pay deep homage to the Finnish landscape, and her most recent pieces have introduced humans into this landscape as explorers. The jury found it intriguing that Tiina Kivinen has chosen the mezzotint technique as her preferred medium, and remarked on how this technique and the pictorial content she focuses on bring a sense of mutualism and clarity to her work. The jury was also impressed by Kivinen’s high technical proficiency and her purposeful efforts, diligently crafted over an extended period of time."

Rachel Kent is the recently appointed CEO of the Bundanon Trust, which will launch its new Art Museum and Bridge for Creative Learning in 2022. Prior to this, she was the Chief Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) Australia (2011-2021), leading its curatorial team, shaping the organisation’s artistic vision, and advocating for creative culture on national and international platforms.

Rachel has presented exhibitions in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, the United States and Canada, working with artists such as Yoko Ono, Grayson Perry, Yinka Shonibare MBE, Tatsuo Miyajima, David Goldblatt, Cornelia Parker and Doug Aitken. Her exhibitions have been presented at the Brooklyn Museum, New York; National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC; MCA San Diego; Musee d’art contemporain de Montreal; and the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo.

Rachel sits on editorial, academic and government advisory panels, and speaks and publishes widely on modern and contemporary art. She is the editor and author of multiple award-winning artist monographs, working with Prestel, Phaidon and Thames & Hudson.

Pablo del Val (b. 1964) has decades of experience as a cultural manager, curator, and director of contemporary art galleries around the world.

For the last 6 years he has held the position of Artistic Director of Art Dubai. Art Dubai has been a major catalyst in the local, regional and international conversations on art from the Middle East and surrounding region (MENASA – Middle East, North Africa & South Asia), helping to put art from these territories onto the global map. As one of the world’s most international art fairs, Art Dubai has further expanded its commitment to cultivating a culture of discovery, offering exciting new global perspectives and broadening conversations about art beyond traditional western-led geographical scopes and narratives.

Previously del Val has held the position of Artistic Director of ZONA MACO, Mexico City International Contemporary Art Fair (2012 – 2015) as well as the Director at La Conservera, Centro de Arte Contemporáneo, Mucia, Spania (2009 – 2013).

Qiu Zhijie (b. 1969) is dean and professor at the School of Experimental Art at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, and professor of the School of Intermedia Art at China Academy of Art. As an artist, Qiu Zhijie is known for his calligraphy and ink painting, photography, video, installation and performance works. His art is representational of a new kind of experimental communication between the Chinese literati tradition and contemporary art, as well as social participation and the power of self-liberation within art. As an art writer, Qiu Zhijie has published several books including: The Image and Post Modernism (2002), Give Me a Mask (2003), The Limit of Freedom (2003), The Photography after Photography (2004), On Total Art (2012).

He was the curator of the first video art exhibition in China in 1996 and curated a series of “Post-sense Sensibility” exhibitions during 1999 and 2005 promoting the young generation of Chinese artists. In 2012 he was the chief curator of the 9th Shanghai Biennale “Reactivation”, and in 2017 the chief curator of the Chinese Pavilion of the 57th Venice Biennale. Qiu Zhijie was shortlisted for the Hugo Boss Prize administered by the Guggenheim Foundation due to his work of The Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge Project. He was awarded “Artist of the Year” at the Art China Awards in 2009 and was nominated for the same award in 2016.

His works are included in major museum collections and institutions around the world, including the Guggenheim Museum in NYC, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, Foundation Louis Vuitton, Foundation by Christian Dior, Ullens Foundation, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, and the White Rabbit Gallery in Sydney.

• Emi Eu, Christopher Le Brun and Philip Tinari - 2020
• Lars Nittve, Mark Nash and Tauba Auerbach - 2018
• Starr Figura, Ute Meta Bauer and Martin Puryear - 2016
• HM Queen Sonja, Ian McKeever, Rasmus Urwald, Tiina Kivinen and Ole Larsen - 2014
• HM Queen Sonja, Ørnulf Opdahl, Kjell Nupen, Ole Larsen and Karin Hellandsjø - 2012