On 25 February 2009 the names of the 20 shortlisted nominees for the PinchukArtCentre Prize, a nationwide prize in contemporary art for young Ukrainian artists, have been announced. The shortlist has been formed according to the results of the primary selection conducted by the Expert Committee.

The PinchukArtCentre Prize short list includes: Myroslav Vayda, Artem Volokitin, Andrii Galashyn, Hamlet Zinkovskyi, Mykyta Kadan, Zhanna Kadyrova, Mayya Kolesnik, Volodymyr Kuznetsov, Lada Nakonechna, Oksana Protsenko, Oleksii Saj, Oleksii Salmanov, Olesia Khomenko, Oleksii Khoroshko, Ivan Chubukov, Masha Shubina and also BLUEMOLOKO, Hat, SOSka and SYN groups.

The exhibition of the works by the shortlisted young artists is to be opened in the PinchukArtCentre in October 2009. The curators of the show will be Peter Doroshenko and Aleksandr Soloviov. The International Jury will nominate the Prize winners in the course of the exhibition.

Eckhard Schneider, General Manager of the PinchukArtCentre: “The result of the application process is overwhelming. The positive feed-back of the national art scene together with quality of the works show the great success of this vision. More than 1100 applications from all regions of Ukraine and some other countries – is a treasure for future. This is why we have shortlisted 20 artists instead of 12 for the dedicated PinchukArtCentre Prize exhibition. Considering the importance of the project and its scale, we have decided to offer more space for each artist and their works and in total for the whole show, and also we have changed the schedule so that the artists have more time to develop new works for the show.”

The innovative form of the application process via Internet is an important progress for all our upcoming activities on the national art scene. Another positive and essential outcome is a newly formed database to communicate, inform and collaborate with artists, institutions, curators and mass media nationally and internationally.

Background:

PinchukArtCentre Prize is the first private nationwide art prize in Ukraine, which objective is to produce, support and develop 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. Artists working with different genres of the contemporary art may apply for the competition. The selection process is very democratic and open. The applications were submitted strictly on-line via prize.pinchukartcentre.org from 3 November 2008 to 15 January 2009.

The PinchukArtCentre Prize encompasses Main Prize, two Special Prizes and People’s Choice Prize:

• Main Prize of the PinchukArtCentre is UAH 100 thousand and internship in the workshops of the leading artists of the world
• two Special Prizes of PinchukArtCentre are UAH 25 thousand each and internship in the workshops of the leading artists of the world
• People’s Choice Prize is UAH 10 thousand. People’s Choice Prize winner is selected by voting of the visitors of the Prize exhibition project.

Eckhard Schneider, General Manager of the PinchukArtCentre: ”By setting up the Prize, the PinchukArtCentre strives to heighten the interest in contemporary art and to create “the critical mass” of young artists, discovering new names for Ukraine and the whole world. The aim of the PinchukArtCentre Prize is contributing to converting Kyiv into one of the greatest cultural centres of today's world, not only exhibiting, but giving birth to the best contemporary art creations. We believe that the new generation of artists does exist in Ukraine, and we do believe in their future”.

According to the Prize Rules, within a set period of time, an artist or a group of artists should submit 3 to 7 works. The primary selection was performed by the Expert Committee that included Eckhard Schneider (General Manager of the PinchukArtCentre ), Peter Doroshenko (Artistic Director) and Aleksand Soloviov (curator). The works of the shortlisted artists will be exhibited at the PinchukArtCentre in autumn 2009.

The winners of the Prize will be nominated by the International Jury formed of the contemporary art world experts, including artists, museum directors, curators and critics. The Jury shall be announced at the opening of the exhibition of the works by the shortlisted nominees. Decision will be made by simple majority of votes of the International Jury members. The People's Choice Prize winner will be selected by votes of the visitors of the PinchukArtCentre Prize exhibition project.

PinchukArtCentre was opened in September of 2006 to become one of the largest centers of contemporary art in Eastern Europe. It is of the project of the Victor Pinchuk Foundation in the culture field. The main activities of the center are organization of exhibitions of international and Ukrainian artists, support of cultural projects and others. Since its opening, PinchukArtCentre carried out 8 large-scale exhibitions visited by nearly 450 thousand people. In spring of 2008 PinchukArtCentre opened Project Room to host exhibitions of young Ukrainian and foreign artists. In June - November of 2007 PinchukArtCentre represented Ukraine at 52nd International Art Exhibition Venice Biennale with exposition A Poem about an Inland Sea.

Victor Pinchuk Foundation is one of the largest charity organizations of Ukraine founded by Mr. Victor Pinchuk, businessman and philanthropist, in 2006. The Foundation develops and implements social projects aimed at Ukraine’s development and forming the new generation of Ukrainian leaders. The priorities of the Foundation comprise health care, education, culture, human rights, global integration of Ukraine and local community development.

The largest projects of the Foundation include: Ukraine-wide network of centers for newborn care Cradles of Hope, scholarship program Zavtra.ua, center of contemporary art PinchukArtCentre.

Victor Pinchuk Foundation is a member of the European Foundation Centre and of the Ukrainian Grantmakers Forum; it is the partner of Yalta European Strategy (YES) and cooperates with Global Clinton Initiative and other NGOs.