Art Basel and BMW are delighted to present the next artist shortlist and to continue their joint initiative to recognize and support emerging artists worldwide. The BMW Art Journey can take artists almost anywhere in the world to develop new ideas and envision new creative projects. Today, an international expert jury announced A.K. Burns, Jamal Cyrus and Mariela Scafati as the shortlisted artists showing in Positions, the sector for emerging artists at Art Basel’s show in Miami Beach.
A.K. Burns at Callicoon Fine Arts, New York
A.K. Burns, born in 1975, lives and works in Brooklyn, United States and received her Master of Fine Arts from the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts in 2010. In her artistic practice, the artist views the body as a contentious domain wherein issues of gender, labor, ecology and sexuality are negotiated. At Art Basel in Miami Beach, she premiers Weather Report, an installation that calls forth a dystopian domestic scene, a kind of allegorical space weathered by the current political situation, vexing barriers between the interior and exterior. Recent solo exhibitions include New Museum New York, Callicoon Fine Arts, New York and Michel Rein, Paris. The artist has exhibited in recent group shows at New Museum, New York, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna and at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Los Angeles.
Jamal Cyrus at Inman Gallery, Houston
Jamal Cyrus was born in 1973 in Houston, United States, where he still lives and works. He received his Master of Fine Arts from the University of Pennsylvania in 2008. Cyrus’ work draws on the languages of collage, assemblage, and the cultural politics embedded within Black American music and culture. At this year’s Art Basel in Miami Beach, Cyrus is presenting STANDARDZENBLŪZ II, a project whose imagery is sampled from concert posters, record covers, Jet Magazine, and the interior of a record store in Tokyo. Cyrus’ solo and group exhibitions include Inman Gallery, Houston, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD), Detroit, and Institute of Contemporary Art Philadelphia (ICA), Philadelphia.
Mariela Scafati at Isla Flotante, Buenos Aires
Mariela Scafati, born in 1973 in Olivos near Buenos Aires, still lives and works in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She studied Visual Arts at the ESAV in Bahía Blanca, Argentina. In her artistic practice, she pays attention to the relationship between activism and pictorial manifestations. At this year’s Art Basel in Miami Beach show, Scafati is presenting an installation that confirms and eschews the notion of paintings as self-contained entities. Scafati’s solo exhibitions include Abate Fine Art, Santa Fe, Instituto de Investigaciones Gino Germani, Buenos Aires and Isla Flotante, Buenos Aires. She has exhibited in recent group shows at Museo de Arte Moderno, Buenos Aires, Bienal do São Paulo, São Paulo and Museo do Arte, São Paulo.
The three shortlisted artists are now invited to develop a proposal for their ideal journey, with the winner to be announced in early 2018.
For further information, please visit artbasel.com or bmw-art-journey.com.
