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)