The official award ceremony of the PinchukArtCentre Prize, a contemporary art prize awarded to young Ukrainian artists under 35б has taken place today in Arena Club, Kyiv. The Prize objective is to produce, support and develop a new generation of young Ukrainian artists.

Members of the international jury including Francesco Bonami (Italy), Udo Kittelmann (Germany), Jessica Morgan (UK), as well as Ukrainian artists Serhiy Bratkov and Boris Mikhailov, had to decide on the winners of the Main Prize and two special Prizes choosing from twenty contenders.

The Main Prize of UAH 100 000 is awarded to Artem Volokitin from Kharkiv for his works from the Teenagers and Hero series. The Patron of the Prize, British artist Damien Hirst, has presented the top award to the winner.

‘All children draw and paint and most of them stop when they grow up, they become bank managers or lawyers. So any encouragement for us is great, and especially for young artists. I looked at the exhibition this afternoon. And the quality of all the works in the exhibition is incredibly high. And I am sure the judges had a very difficult decision’, said Hirst at the ceremony.

Two Special Prizes of UAH 25 000 each are awarded to Oleksiy Salmanov and Masha Shubina.

In addition to the cash prizes, the winners of the Main and two Special prizes will have an opportunity to enter one month apprenticeship at studios of internationally renowned artists: Andreas Serrano in New York, Olafur Eliasson in Berlin and Antony Gormley in London.

The People’s Choice Prize of UAH 10 000 is awarded to the group BLUEMOLOKO for their Ukrline and Islands works. The group was chosen as a result of voting by the PinchukArtCentre visitors held during the exhibition of 20 shortlisted artists from 29 October to 29 November 2009. Volodymyr Klichko was invited as a special guest of the ceremony to award this prize.

This Prize sets new high standards in the contemporary Ukrainian art: open and democratic competition procedure; total number of received applications; well-organised, interesting and diverse exhibition of 20 shortlisted prize contenders; internationally recognized experts and artists as jury members and support coming from such great artists as Damien Hirst – these arguments speak for themselves. The rewards and a chance for the young Ukrainians to train at the art studios of today’s top contemporary artists demonstrate once again the significance of the PinchukArtCentre’s contribution to the sustainable development of the contemporary Ukrainian art.

Jessica Morgan, curator at Tate Modern (UK): “After a lengthy but fruitful discussion of each participant the jury selected democratically the three finalists. Overall the jury was very impressed by the quality of all three. Artem Volokitin was selected for the first prize and we look forward to seeing his future development.”

Udo Kittelmann, director of Neue Nationalgalerie (Germany): “We are very surprised to see this exhibition and the quality of artists, and we are looking forward to how this prize will continue and this is a great thing to have this award here in Kyiv.”

Eckhard Schneider, General Director of the PinchukArtCentre: “I am glad about the result. It shows, there is a growing quality, there is a growing generation. I think it was very important the international jury was here to see the result and to spread it, communicating about this, that something is growing here.”

The exhibition of the 20 PinchukArtCentre Prize nominees, including the works by the Prize finalists, will be open till 20 December. 2009.

Artem Volokitin
Born in 1981 in Chuguiv, Kharkiv region. Lives and works in Kharkiv.
Hyper real perception of reality. The banal and the ideal. The ordinary and the heroic through the problematic corporeal state. Neo academicism of the picturesque style. Rigorous and stereoscopic style of painting, poses representation, which create the illusion of staged photos.

Oleksiy Salmanov
Born in 1976 in Rostov-na-Donu, Russia. Lives and works in Kyiv.
Domestic globalism. Graphic laconicism and tone expressiveness of black-and-white photographs. Spacial and temporal opportunities of photo session. Impartiality of the documentary and figurative counterpoint of the theatrical.

Masha Shubina
Born in 1979 in Kyiv. Lives and works in Kyiv.
Feminist narcissism. Replicated self-portraits. The digital and the handmade. Moving and static image. The sound and the picture. The volume and the plane. Pop culture references.

PinchukArtCentre Prize is the first private nationwide art prize in Ukraine aimed at producing, supporting and developing a new generation of young Ukrainian artists working in contemporary art.

The prize set by the PinchukArtCentre is to be awarded to the best Ukrainian artists under 35 of every odd year starting from 2009.

The Prize nominees were chosen from over 1100 applicants wishing to participate in the competition, who submitted their applications to the PinchukArtCentre at the start of the year. The shortlisted artists include Myroslav Vayda, Artem Volokitin, Andriy Halashyn, Gamlet Zinkivskyi, Mykyta Kadan, Zhanna Kadyrova, Maya Kolesnik, Volodymyr Kuznetsov, Lada Nakonechna, Oksana–Protsenko, Oleksiy Say, Oleksiy Salmanov, Olesia Khomenko, Oleksiy Khoroshko, Ivan–Chubukov, Masha Shubina and groups BLUEMOLOKO, Hat, SOSka and SYN. Among the Ukraine-based competitors there are also young artists residing in other countries, such as Germany and Costa Rica. One hundred and ten works by these nominees formed an exhibition which opened in the PinchukArtCentre on 31 October.

PinchukArtCentre Prize official website: www.prize.pinchukartcentre.org