Selected artists: Martin Assig, Matt Bryans, Tomasz Kowalski
Daniel & Florence Guerlain
Contemporary Art Foundation
5, rue de la Vallée
78490 Les Mesnuls
France
Following the deliberations of the Contemporary Drawing Prize’s committee, the Daniel & Florence Guerlain Foundation has announced the names of the three selected artists for the 2014 award.
Martin Assig
Martin Assig was born in Schwelm, Germany in 1959. Trained at the Berlin University of the Arts, he now lives and works in Berlin and Brädikow. He has had shows in museums such as the Kiel and Hamburg Kunsthalles, the Museo Reina Sofía, Madrid, and the M HKA Museum of Contemporary Art, Antwerp. His works feature in the collections of New York’s MoMA and the Artothèque, in Nantes (France). He is represented by the Diehl gallery, in Berlin, Vidal-Saint Phalle in Paris, and Galerie Tanit in Munich and Beirut. In 2014, his work will be exhibited at the Les Chiroux cultural centre in Liège, Belgium and he will also have two solo shows in his Parisian and Munich galleries.
Matt Bryans
Born in London in 1977, Matt Bryans now shares his time between the English capital and Norway. He graduated from the Winchester School of Art, then went on to the Chelsea School of Art, London. Matt Bryans has had solo shows at the Atlanta Center of Contemporary Art, SF Camerawork in San Francisco,and the Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens in Deurle, Belgium. He is represented by the Kate McGarry gallery in London, Martin van Zomeren in Amsterdam and his works feature in the collections of the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art and the Centre Pompidou, Paris. In France, he has exhibited at the FRAC Picardie and the Musée des BeauxArts, Besançon. His work will be on view in 2014 at the Hordaland Art Center, Bergen, Norway and the Treignac Project, in Limousin, France.
Tomasz Kowalski
Tomasz Kowalski was born in Szczebrzeszyn, Poland in 1984. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracrow, where he still lives and works. His first exhibitions were held in 2007 and he has already had a solo show at the Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw. His works can be seen in the collections of the Centre Pompidou, Paris, the FRAC Pays-de-la Loire (France), the Mumok, in Vienna, and the MOCAK in Cracow. He is represented by the Carlier Gebauer gallery in Berlin and Tim Van Laere in Antwerp. In 2014, Tomasz Kowalski will have his own show in the United States at the St. Louis Contemporary Art Museum.
The documents concerning the three artists will be given to an international jury composed of Stanislas d’Alburquerque (France), Monica d’Amato (Italy), Luiz Mussnich (Brazil), Sydney Picasso (France), Jean-Edouard Van Praet (Belgium), Marc Robelin (France), Christine Zhao (China) as well as Daniel and Florence Guerlain.
The award ceremony will take place on the 27th of March, 2014 during the Salon du Dessin at the Palais de la Bourse. The winner will receive an endowment of 15.000 Euros and the two other selected artists will receive 5.000 Euros each. A work by the winner is offered by the Foundation to the Graphic Arts Department of the National Museum of Modern Art – Centre Pompidou.
About the Prize
This prize is reserved for both French and foreign artists, whether they live in France or not, but who sustain a privileged cultural link with France (through exhibitions, studies…) and for whom drawing constitutes a significant part of their work, whatever their main mode of expression.
Awarded for the first time in 2007 and biennial until 2009, the Prize honours artists who make any unique work on paper or cardboard, using graphic means: crayon, charcoal, red chalk, ink, wash tint, gouache, watercolour, pastels and felt… including collages and wall drawings but excluding computer and mechanical processes.
The candidates are selected by a committee composed of the two founders, Daniel and Florence Guerlain, and of four members chosen for their competence and interest in contemporary art. Following a working meeting with the artists, visits to studios and analysis, the committee selects three artists whose work is presented to a jury that changes with each prize and responsible for choosing the winner.
Created in 1996, the Daniel & Florence Guerlain Contemporary Art Foundation organized exhibitions in the family property for ten years, before Daniel and Florence Guerlain decided to devote the Foundation’s activities to the Contemporary Drawing Prize. The award receives the support of Neuflize OBC, The House Guerlain, Axa Art, Artcurial, Loticis, Château Seguin, the Foundation’s Cercle des Amis and Champagne Bruno Paillard.
2013 Drawing Prize
Winner: Susan Hefuna (Germany)
2012 Drawing Prize
Winner: Jorinde Voigt (Germany)
2011 Drawing Prize
Winner: Marcel Van Eeden (Netherlands)
2010 Drawing Prize
Winner: Catharina van Eetvelde (Belgium)
2009 Drawing Prize
Winner: Sandra Vasquez de la Horra (Chile)
2007 Drawing Prize
Winner: Silvia Bächli (Switzerland)
Press contact:
Agence Colonnes
Claire Galimard
Lara Fatimi
T +33 (0) 1 42 60 70 10 / contact [at] colonnes.com / www.colonnes.com