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Finalists of the PinchukArtCentre Prize 2009 Announced

On Friday, December 4, the official award ceremony of the PinchukArtCentre Prize, a contemporary art prize awarded to young Ukrainian artists under 35, 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.”

Additionally, on the following day after the award ceremony, members of the international jury Jessica Morgan, Udo Kittelmann, Serhiy Bratkov and Moris Mikhailov took part in a round table with the PinchukArtCentre visitors entitled ‘Supporting Younger Artists in a Global Context’ where they discussed what it entails to support emerging artists living in local situations, but working in global contexts. The Centre artistic director Peter Doroshenko moderated the talks.

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