Published 21 December 2020 in Press
Canvas - Art and Culture from Middle East and Arab World
'The Future is Bright - Winner Takes All?'
By Jo Lawson-Tancred
Canvas - Art and Culture from Middle East and Arab World
Issue #95: Feature
THE FUTURE IS BRIGHT
For the last year, emerging artists have been hit particularly hard, with cancellations of graduate shows, fewer galleries taking chances and lockdowns halting arts events everywhere. The Future is Bright looks at the light at the end of the tunnel and at the young names breaking onto the scene. We speak to gallerists and curators to understand how best to support nascent art scenes, as well as at the impact that creative spaces, grants and art prizes have on developing careers.
WINNER TAKES ALL
With big cash rewards and promises of sell-out shows, it’s no surprise that art prizes are eagerly sought after by artists looking for their big break. But beyond the ritzy glamour and media hype, what do these awards actually mean for an emerging artist’s career?
Racing to install his solo booth for the opening of Frieze London in 2018, artist Wong Ping felt a tap on his shoulder. “I turned around to see a camera and a crowd of people who I didn’t know,” says Wong. He had just been named the inaugural winner of the Camden Art Centre’s Emerging Artist Prize, which offers a solo exhibition at the gallery the following year. “It was a surprise. I was sweating a lot and hadn’t expected to be interviewed so suddenly.” All exhibitors at Frieze’s Focus section, dedicated to galleries of 12 years or younger, are entered automatically but, says Wong, “my gallery never told me!”
Wong, who is based in Hong Kong, sees many of his peers struggle to progress in their careers. “There aren’t many invitations for young artists from institutions, and it’s not something you can apply for.” Martin Clark, who has directed Camden since 2017, hoped to award “an artist we weren’t already aware of, and who we wouldn’t normally programme.” He says of Wong’s eccentric video practice, “It’s quite challenging and doesn’t necessarily look like it would translate easily into an institutional context, but we took a chance with someone who excited us. The response was incredible, and highlights the need to protect spaces and opportunities for emerging artists.”
Image Credit (Page 92): Wong Ping. Image courtesy of the artist
Image Credit (Page 93): Tanoa Sasraku photographed at the BBZ Alternative Graduate Show opening, London, 2018. Image courtesy of Adama Jalloh.
Recalling how it felt to win, Wong says “Honestly, I was very nervous that morning and felt unsure about my art”. While organising the show he found the curators trusted his intuition. “They helped me expand my ideas to the garden, and to an off-site space in Mayfair,” he says. “I got more confidence as they allowed me to do more.”
Supported by Ashurst, the law firm, the Ashurst Emerging Artist Prize is directed by art consultant Conrad Carvalho, who specialises in establishing new artists. “There’s such a high failure rate,” he says, citing the expense of renting space and attending fairs as threats to the ecosystem of small galleries that is necessary for lesser-known artists to thrive. As for the lack of public funding, Carvalho says “We fill a bit of a gap there, as a mechanism for a corporate company to fund emerging artists.” Taking on a similar role is The Arts Foundation, which allocates GBP 10,000 to UK practitioners across the arts through its Futures Award, thanks to an anonymous bequest. This year their visual arts fellow is 25-yearold Tanoa Sasraku, who works in film, drawing and flag-making.
Major art prizes entice artists with large sums of cash, but, Carvalho points out, for emerging artists to achieve sustainable success, “Money isn’t the most important thing.
It’s exhibitions, exposure and connections.” All Ashurst’s entrants receive social media promotion, and all 25 shortlisted artists participate in a group exhibition. A previous winner, Stephen Doyle, found these opportunities surprisingly accessible. “With some international competitions there are suddenly hidden price tags for shipping your work or flying over for the opening.” he explains. “You don’t really consider those extras when you are busy paying the Euro 10 submission fee.”
Ashurst has devised inventive ways to help artists overcome practical roadblocks to success. The GBP 10,000 prize shared between its winners comes in the form of both cash and vouchers for crucial suppliers like Cass Art and Genesis Imaging. Expert panels uploaded on YouTube include advice on topics like ‘making a living’ and ‘putting yourself out there’ and, for would-be entrants, ‘choosing what to submit’. Current winner Pippa El-Kadhi Brown, who is still a student, says, “I struggled with pricing my work. The Ashurst team talked me through the business aspect and now I have a guideline to go by.”
The international titan among prizes for emerging artists is PinchukArtCentre’s biannual Future Generation Art Prize, which offers its winner USD 100,000 and all 21 shortlisted artists a group exhibition at the museum in Kyiv and the Venice Biennale. “In Venice we attract professionals specifically interested in emerging artists, and we know from experience that these encounters have supported artists in years to come,” says artistic director Bjorn Geldhof.
When the prize started in 2009, almost no global awards targeted emerging artists. Shortlisted entrants come from all over the world, including, in 2019, from Ethiopia, Afghanistan and Bolivia. Both the selection committee and jury have a broad geographical spread. “If you don’t have anyone who knows what’s happening in South East Asia, you’re incapable of judging the proposals from there,” Geldhof explains. Among other major international prizes is the Luxembourg Art Prize, which shares a fund of Euro 80,000 among three laureates.
Image Credit (Page 94): (Top) Hmoud Alattawi. 'Blind Ants'. 2020 3D print, clay, resin 220 x 80m Image courtesy of Misk Art Institute (Bottom) Saad Alhowede 'Memory Melting'. 2020 Plastic toys, resin and fibreglass. 260 x 120cm Image courtesy of Misk Art Institute
Image Credit (Page 95): Hamra Abbas 'Woman in Black'. 2011 Abraaj Group Art Prize Installation at Art Dubai 2011. Image courtesy of Art Dubai and the artist
With a more local focus, the Misk Art Grant, part of the Misk Foundation, supports young creatives in Saudi Arabia. Entrants submit proposals for a new artwork in response to a theme, with CEO Reem Al-Sultan explaining how these “serve as a way by which we can gauge the ‘temperature’ of today”. Judges look for “a well-thought-out and detailed plan for the artwork’s realisation”.
In its inaugural edition last year, Misk awarded five Saudi artists USD 25,000 each, as well as production support. “We believe in holistic approaches,” says Al-Sultan, “and based on our research [we see that] artists benefit from technical support and mentorship programmes.” One winner, Hmoud AlAttawi, proposed 'Blind Ants', a sculpture addressing hive mind behaviour that would have otherwise been too expensive to produce. A chance to exhibit the work introduced it to a curious local audience, who he says “not only visited several times, but questioned the nature of the material and the concept behind the artwork.”
This new support is welcome following the demise of the Abraaj Group Art Prize in 2018, which for a decade boosted the careers of Middle Eastern, North African and South Asian artists with its major USD 100,000 commission and opportunity to exhibit at Art Dubai. Winners included now-renowned contemporary artists like Kader Attia, Rayyane Tabet, Rana Begum, Hamra Abbas, artist duo Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme, as well as Zoulikha Bouabdellah, who was one of the winners in the prize’s inaugural iteration. “Abraaj allowed me as a young artist to start dreaming,” she recalls, “and the money meant I could carry out a large-scale project. Winning a prize like this makes you feel as if you have wings on your heels and that nothing is impossible.”
Touting a different kind of experience is the BMW Art Journey, which awards an artist from the Discovery section at Art Basel with the opportunity to travel and develop their practice. Past winners include Abigail Reynolds, Lu Yang and Max Hooper Schneider. The latest winner, Leelee Chan, chose to look at material culture in the past, present and future. “Between a day job to pay bills and making art for shows, emerging artists are under so much pressure,” she says. “The journey didn’t require a finished product or exhibition, so I could just focus on process and research.”
In Italy, Chan visited an artist local to the marble quarries of Carrara, who taught her carving techniques, and Europe’s oldest bell foundry, where she spoke to copper artisans. Chan works with concrete, and in Switzerland she met the inventor of a new sustainable version. Emerging artists, she says, are limited by the practical constraints of available materials. “I use found objects, so people assume my interest is only in contemporary culture,” she says. “But I’ve always been interested in ancient materials too.”
As traditional routes into the art world are slowly eroded, more prizes for emerging artists may hope to take their place. Each offers something different, but it’s often too early to tell what the long-term effects of these awards might be. “Winning prizes isn’t the magic formula that’s going to get you into Gagosian or a museum,” says Ashurst’s director Carvalho. “We try to be honest with our entrants about that. There’s still a lot of hard work involved, but hopefully it does give you a bit of acceleration.”
Image Credit (Page 96): Leelee Chan. 'Sunset Capsule'. 2019. Site-specific sculptural installation. Construction: lights, metal stands, crystal pieces from a scavenged chandelier, concrete, fibreglass, metal hardware, gel filters. Installation dimensions variable, each light ranges from 146 x 38 x 38cm to 150 x 38 x 38cm, 146 x 38 x 38cm, 150 x 38 x 38cm. Photography by UCCA Dune. © Leelee Chan and Capsule Shanghai
Image Credit (Page 97): Lu Yang. 'Hell'. 2017. Installation view of Société Berlin. © Lu Yang and Société Berlin
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Image Credit: Mays Albaik. 'Teleprompter (A Terranean Love Note)'. 2021. Collaboration by the artist with Isaac Sullivan. Mixed media, video. 168 (H) x 55 (W) x 36 (D) cm. Photography by Reed Ghunaim