The 2024 Queen Sonja Print Awards

CEREMONY FOR ROYAL ART PRIZE TO BE HELD IN CITY OF CULTURE ABOVE THE ARCTIC CIRCLE

The Ceremony for The Queen Sonja Print Award 2024, the world’s most important prize for printmaking, will be held in Bodø in the north of Norway, on 5 & 6 June 2024. The city, known for its spectacular landscape and midnight sun, is the European Capital of Culture 2024.

The Queen Sonja Print Award was established by Her Majesty Queen Sonja of Norway in 2011 to generate interest and promote the development of contemporary printmaking. Having originally focused on work made in Scandinavia, the Award has now developed to become a major international prize and an important event in the global art calendar.

Every two years, the Award celebrates the excellence of three artists at different stages of their careers from those who have recently graduated to the most important figures in their field.

The Award is divided into three categories:

• The Queen Sonja Print Award

• The QSPA Inspirational Award

• The QSPA Lifetime Achievement Award

Past award-winners include David Hockney, Paula Rego, William Kentridge, Yto Barrada, Ciara Phillips, Emma Nishimura, Tauba Auerbach, Svend-Allan Sørensen and Tiina Kivinen. HM Queen Sonja of Norway is herself an accomplished artist and a highly-regarded printmaker. A passionate believer in the importance of art in everyone’s lives, a key aim of the Award is to make art accessible to all.

Norway has a very strong tradition of printmaking thanks to the extraordinary graphic work of artists such as Edvard Munch. This has made it especially appropriate that Norway should be the home of the world’s leading prize for printmaking.