Phoebe Boswell (Kenya / United Kingdom) receives Special Prizes

Dineo Seshee Bopape (South Africa) is the recipient of the Future Generation Art Prize 2017, the fourth edition of the first ever global art prize for artists under 35, founded by the Victor Pinchuk Foundation. The winner was announced by the international jury at the award ceremony in the PinchukArtCentre, Kyiv, Ukraine on 16 March 2017. Dineo Seshee Bopape received a total of $100,000: $60,000 as a cash award, and $40,000 towards the production of a new work.

An additional $20,000 was allocated to fund artist-in-residency programmes for the Special Prize winner Phoebe Boswell (Kenya / United Kingdom). 

The winners were chosen by a distinguished international jury consisting of Nicholas Baume, Director and Chief Curator, Public Art Fund, New York; Iwona Blazwick, Director, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London; Björn Geldhof, Artistic Director, PinchukArtCentre, Kyiv and YARAT, Baku; Mami Kataoka, Chief Curator, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo and Curator, 21^st Biennale of Sydney 2018; Koyo Kouoh, Founding Artistic Director, Raw Material Company, Dakar; Jochen Volz, curator of the 32nd São Paulo Biennial and General director of Pinacoteca, São Paulo, Brazil; Jérôme Sans, Co-Founder, Palais de Tokyo Paris and Artistic Director, Perfect Crossovers, Paris-Beijing.

Addressing the young artists Victor Pinchuk, founder of the Future Generation Art Prize said: “Contemporary art is the space of freedom. It lets you be free. It even FORCES you to open up. This is so important. People in many countries are afraid. Politicians use this. Nations speak the language of threats. Contemporary art is the antidote.

I am really proud to be together with the 21 most energetic young artists here today and we can confirm that Ukraine is still a very modern country, a hub for contemporary art in the world. Together we create this energy of freedom here in Ukraine for the world.”

Commenting the Future Generation Art Prize 2017, the Jury said: “This edition of the Future Generation Art Prize reveals a generation of artists who draw on social and cultural histories - and systems, to create works of great emotional and conceptual affect.  Their work reflects the heterogeneity of our visual world and the political structures that shape it, yet is also grounded in the body or the land. They celebrate forms of knowledge that may be philosophical or atavistic; yet they translate their research into immersive works that have a powerful immediacy.

The Jury was impressed by the quality of installations every artist created for this exhibition, the global span contributed by the nominating organisations and the curatorial verve of the PinchukArtCentre team in realising all the artists’ visions.”

The shortlisted artists and winners will take part in the Future Generation Art Prize@Venice group exhibition organised by the PinchukArtCentre as a Collateral Event of the 2017 Venice Biennale. As the winner of the Future Generation Art Prize 2017, Dineo Seshee Bopape will present her solo show at the PinchukArtCentre in Kyiv, in 2018.  

Introducing Dineo Seshee Bopape, the winner of the Future Generation Art Prize 2017, the jury stated: “Some unexpected vegetation has been sprouting through the course of this show, a testament to the remarkable fertility of the rich black Ukrainian soil that has been arranged into a landscape and a platform for the raw and the cooked. This soft black plateau is a stage for the hand - digging in labour; open in a gesture of giving; or clenched as a fist of protest - transformed from clay into a ceramic hand-cast.

Exploring this ‘land art’ installed at the top of this gallery, we discover minerals, crystals and ash extracted from the earth or arranged in ritualistic forms. We see voids lined with gold leaf. Each material or object is a metaphor for the land and for landlessness; for wealth and impoverishment; for new life and for mourning. Fronds of burnt herbs and crystals act as agents of healing and purification; and we are immersed in the sonic environment of the sea.

For her formally inventive and politically symbolic sculpture, the 2017 Future Generation Art Prize is awarded to Dineo Seshee Bopape.”

Commenting on works by the Special Prize winners Phoebe Boswell the jury said: “In this exhibition we encounter a corridor of virtuoso life drawings, female figures, animated on an epic scale. These naked yet heroic protagonists have stories to tell and they are activated by our presence - we are also invited to contribute our own thoughts and statements. In recognition of the immersive and emotionally charged power of the installation titled Mutumia, a special prize is awarded to Phoebe Boswell.”

The exhibition of the 21 shortlisted artists for the fourth edition of the Future Generation Art Prize is on show at the PinchukArtCentre, Kyiv, Ukraine until 16 April 2017. The show presents new works by the following shortlisted artists and groups: Njideka Akunyili Crosby, 33 (Nigeria / United States), Iván Argote, 32 (Colombia / France), Firelei Báez, 35 (Dominican Republic / United States), Dineo Seshee Bopape, 35 (South Africa), Phoebe Boswell, 34 (Kenya / United Kingdom), Vivian Caccuri, 30 (Brazil), Sol Calero, 34 (Venezuela / Germany), Asli Çavuşoğlu, 34 (Turkey), Vajiko Chachkhiani, 31 (Georgia / Germany), Carla Chaim, 33 (Brazil), Christian Falsnaes, 35 (Denmark / Germany), EJ Hill, 31 (United States), Andy Holden, 34 (United Kingdom), Li Ran, 30 (China), Ibrahim Mahama, 29 (Ghana), Rebecca Moss, 25 (United Kingdom), Sasha Pirogova, 29 (Russia), Kameelah Janan Rasheed, 31 (United States), Martine Syms, 28 (United States), Kemang Wa Lehulere, 32 (South Africa), Open Group (Ukraine).

The Future Generation Art Prize 2017 exhibition is curated by Anna Smolak.

The 20 shortlisted artists were selected from over 4400 artists, from 138 countries, by an international Selection Committee. The Open Group – winners of the PinchukArtCentre Prize 2015, a national contemporary art prize awarded to young Ukrainian artists under 35 – were automatically shortlisted.

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Works presented at the exhibition of 21 shortlisted artists:
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About the Future Generation Art Prize

All artists under 35, of all backgrounds, working in any medium, anywhere in the world, are encouraged to apply for the Future Generation Art Prize. Supporting the application process, more than 600 correspondents all over the world nominate artists for the prize and over 50 Partner Platforms worldwide are ambassadors for the Prize to encourage artists within their regions to apply.

The main prize is awarded by an international jury and consists of US$ 100 000, split between $60 000 in cash and $40 000 investment in the production of a new work. In addition, US$ 20 000 is awarded to up to five Special Prize winners, nominated by the jury.

Winners of the previous editions of the Future Generation Art Prize:
2010: Cinthia Marcelle (Brazil),
2012: Lynette Yiadom-Boakye (UK),
2014: Nástio Mosquito (Angola) and Carlos Motta (Colombia).

Previous Special Prizes winners:
2010: Nicolae Mircea (Romania),
2012: Jonathas de Andrade (Brazil), Micol Assael (Italy), Ahmet Ögüt (Turkey), Rayyane Tabet (Lebanon), Marwa Arsanios (Lebanon),
2014: Aslan Gaisumov (Chechen Republic, Russia), Mykyta Kadan (Ukraine), Zhanna Kadyrova (Ukraine).

Official website: futuregenerationartprize.org