Following
the breakthrough success of last year’s winners, Prudential Eye Awards returns
to Singapore Art Week 2016 with over 100 submissions for five award categories,
a 2.5-month public exhibition at ArtScience Museum and a solo exhibition at
Saatchi Gallery, London for the overall prize winner
Singapore, 3 December 2015
– The
Prudential Eye Programme is pleased to announce that the third edition of the
Prudential Eye Awards returns to Singapore in January 2016 as part of Singapore
Art Week. The Awards celebrates emerging Asian contemporary artists with a
ceremony that will take place at MasterCard Theatres - Sands Theatre at Marina
Bay Sands on Tuesday 19 January 2016. This is accompanied by a public
exhibition at ArtScience Museum which will run from 16 January to 27 March 2016.
This is the second year that the Marina Bay Sands is the Official Venue for the
prestigious awards ceremony and the exhibition.
This
edition follows the breakthrough international success of last year’s overall
winner,Japanese collective Chim↑Pom,
who went on to feature in museum shows in the UK, Denmark and Australia
following their success at the Awards. As part of the prize, Chim↑Pom
also had a solo exhibition at emerging art fair, START at Saatchi Gallery in
September 2015, which opened to great critical acclaim. The 2016 edition
features 15 artists that an eminent panel of Judges believe have the potential
to go on and develop significant careers on the international art world stage.
The
Judges for this edition of the Prudential Eye Awards are Johnson Chang,
Serenella Ciclitira (CEO & Founder of Parallel Contemporary Art), Honor
Harger (Executive Director, ArtScience Museum, Marina Bay Sands), Nigel Hurst
(CEO, Saatchi Gallery), Fumio Nanjo (Director, Mori Art Museum), Rosalyn
D’Mello (Writer, Editor and Art
Critic), and Gu
Wenda (Celebrated contemporary artist and 2015 Prudential Eye Awards Lifetime
Achievement recipient). They reviewed the submissions of over 100 artists put
forward by curators, critics and art experts from across Asia in order to
produce shortlists of three artists in five categories for Best Emerging
Artist.
The annual awards focus on emerging artists
from across Greater Asia and highlight the breadth, range and diversity of the
works made by emerging Asian artists. The total prize money amounts to
USD$150,000, of which USD$20,000 as well as a specially commissioned trophy,
will be awarded to the winner of each category. An overall winner will be chosen from the
winners of the five categories and will be awarded the prize of ‘Best Emerging
Artist’, winning a further USD$30,000 and a solo exhibition at START, Saatchi
Gallery in London.
Best
Emerging Artist Using Digital/Video: Anupong Charoenmitr (Thailand), Sutthirat
Supaparinya (Thailand), Trinh Thi Nguyen (Vietnam)
Best
Emerging Artist Using Installation: Huang Po-Chih (Taiwan), indieguerillas
(Indonesia), Aditya Novali (Indonesia)
Best
Emerging Artist Using Painting: Toshiyuki Konishi (Japan), Manish Nai (India),
Tawan Wattuya (Thailand)
Best
Emerging Artist Using Photography: Shumon Ahmed (Bangladesh), Zhang Wei
(China), Robert Zhao (Singapore)
Best
Emerging Artist Using Sculpture: Promotesh Das (Bangladesh), Sareth Svay (Cambodia),
Yang Mushi (China)
Digital
and Video work is strongly represented by three artists, Anupong Charoenmitr,
Sutthurat Supaparinya and Trinh Thi Nguyen whose works touch on issues that
include the passage of time, mortality, environmentalism and migration.
An
element of playful questioning characterises the work of Huang Po-Chih,
indieguerillas and Aditya Novali, all of whom have been shortlisted for Best
Emerging Artist Using Installation. Huang Po-Chih will re-create a production
line for denim garments whilst Aditya Novali presents an installation
comprising of drawings of people taken from a book about Indonesian art.
Toshiyuki
Konishi, Manish Nai and Tawan Wattuya all approach painting from different perspectives
in terms of subject matter and materiality. Together they demonstrate the
continued flourishing of painting across Asia.
Shumon
Ahmed, Zhang Wei and Robert Zhao provide a very strong shortlist for Best
Emerging Artist Using Photography with all three practitioners exploring a
particular way of using photography and drawing on the specifics of the
locations they work from.
The
three artists shortlisted for Best Emerging Artist Using Sculpture, Promotesh
Das, Sareth Svay and Yang Mushi are all concerned with the formal language of
contemporary sculpture despite their different approaches to subject matter.
Niru
Ratnam, Director of the Prudential Eye Awards said, “I’m delighted with the shortlists
that the judges have arrived at. There is no doubt that the selection of
artists demonstrates both quality and variety. I’m particularly impressed by
this year’s shortlists as I truly believe they represent a new generation of
artists emerging across Asia and am intrigued to see the exhibition of the
shortlisted artists’ works at ArtScience Museum.”
Low Eng Teong, Director,
Sector Development - Visual Arts, National Arts Council said "The National
Arts Council is delighted with the return of the Prudential Eye Awards to
Singapore Art Week 2016. The signature Awards have been an excellent platform
to showcase creative and cutting edge contemporary art by emerging artists from
across Asia, including Singapore’s very own artist Robert Zhao. The
accompanying exhibition of their works will also add to the breadth and
diversity of programmes during Singapore Art Week, and we hope Singaporeans and
visitors alike will enjoy the thought-provoking works on show."
Sean Rach, Chief Marketing
Officer, Prudential Corporation Asia said, “Art is a powerful medium of expression
often providing a window to view a community’s culture.As a leading life insurer (Prudential) and
asset manager (Eastspring Investments) in Asia, we are focused on helping
people prepare for a secure future through listening to and understanding their
motivations, goals and dreams. Our sponsorship of the Prudential Eye Awards,
and the overall Prudential Eye Programme, is a natural extension of our
commitment to the communities we serve.”
Honor
Harger, Executive Director of ArtScience Museum said: “ArtScience Museum is
delighted to be presenting an exhibition of the artists nominated for the
Prudential Eye Awards, for the second year running. The quality of submissions
for the 2016 awards was impressive, and is representative of the dynamism of contemporary
art practice in Asia. We are pleased to provide a world stage for some of the
region’s most striking emerging artists during Singapore's Art Week in January
2016, which also includes Art Stage Singapore at Marina Bay Sands, as well as a
range of other events and exhibitions, that collectively emphasises Singapore's
growing prominence as a contemporary art destination."
In
addition to the awards for Best Emerging Artist categories and Overall Winner,
the Prudential Eye Awards will also feature four special awards. These are the
Best Asian Contemporary Art Institution, Best Exhibition of Asian Contemporary
Art, the Lifetime Achievement Award for Asian Contemporary Art and the Award
for Visual and Popular Culture. For the first time the first two of these
awards will be decided by public voting on the Prudential Eye Awards website. (www.prudentialeyeawards.com)
The
shortlist for the Best Asian Contemporary Art Institution is: NTU Centre for
Contemporary Art Singapore (Singapore), Para Site (Hong Kong), Spring Workshop
(Hong Kong) and the land foundation (Thailand)
The
shortlist for the Best Exhibition of Asian Contemporary Art is: ‘Great
Crescent: Art and Agitation in the 1960s – Japan, South Korea and Taiwan’ (Para
Site, Hong Kong); ‘Twin Tracks: Yang Fudong (Yuz Museum, China), ‘Chen Zhen:
Without going to New York and Paris, life could be internationalized’ (Rockbund
Museum, Shanghai) and ‘Go East: The Gene and Brian Sherman Contemporary Asian
Art Collection’ (Art Gallery of New South Wales, Australia)