Sancintya Mohini Simpson wins Derek Williams Trust Artes Mundi Purchase Prize
With presenting partner the Bagri Foundation, Artes Mundi, the UK’s leading biennial exhibition and international contemporary art prize, has announced Antonio Paucar (born 1973 Huancayo, Peru) as the winner of the Artes Mundi 11 (AM11) prize, with an award sum of GBP 40,000. Alongside him, Sancintya Mohini Simpson (born 1991 Meeanjin/Brisbane) has been named as the Derek Williams Trust Artes Mundi Purchase Prize winner, resulting in one or more of her works acquired from the exhibitions for Amgueddfa Cymru - Museum Wales. Paucar and Simpson are two of six international contemporary visual artists whose work is currently on show across five venue partners in Wales until 1 March 2026 for the eleventh anniversary edition of Artes Mundi. Paucar’s work is presented at Mostyn in Llandudno, with Mohini Simpson’s work at Chapter in Cardiff, alongside the group show at National Museum Cardiff.
Antonio Paucar creates a unique artistic language through performances, sculpture and related video. Drawing on his origins and the material culture of his indigenous Andean background, his practice poetically tackles contemporary conflicts faced by indigenous peoples and the ensuing environmental threats to place and home. For AM11, Paucar presents a series of new and existing large-scale hand woven alpaca wool sculptures and related performance videos of their making that result from live performances reflective of rituals and interventions. At Mostyn, Paucar’s presentation comprises the large-scale textile sculpture Illapa (2021) and a projection of the performance video Suspendio en la Quenua (2014). Alongside these works, Paucar revisits an earlier work to create a new performance rooted in the material location of North Wales. The imprint of the action of performing a handstand against the gallery wall, with feet covered in clay, is shown alongside a film of the performance. At National Museum Cardiff, Paucar presents the newly expanded performance La Energia Espiral del AYNI II comprising the video performance and resulting object of a spiralling black and white alpaca wool circle. El Corazón de la Montaña (2018-19) sees the artist in the Huaytapallana mountain range, an area under threat through significant glacier retreat, loss of water resources, ecological damage and increased hazards for the communities dependent on its ecosystem and water supplies. It is a place of worship and spirituality for the Mantaro Andean people. Using his own blood, Paucar writes a sentence in his native language, wanka lima (Quechua wanka), which means: "The heart of the sacred mountains is weeping blood."
In a shared statement, the AM11 Jury said: “For over twenty years, Artes Mundi has been a leading platform in contemporary art, contributing to the shaping of the field by introducing new and under-recognised voices and positions; supporting different modes of presentation, and methods of making and sharing work whilst ensuring that these positions and methodologies reach the widest audiences in Wales and internationally. In AM 11, what we found particularly compelling, beyond the strength of the artistic positions, was how the organisation distributed the exhibitions across the country to highlight the work of art communities outside the centre, ensuring that resources and works could be shared with audiences nationwide.”
“We find all presentations deserving of recognition, as all artists are confronting the pressing matters of our times from a situated position and with unwavering rigour. After extensive deliberation, we nominate Antonio Paucar for AM11 Prize, as an artist whose expansive practice encapsulates a long-term commitment to and engagement with his local environment and communities, creating work that speaks powerfully to marginalised contexts and extracted histories. His sensitive economy of means, grounded in nature, sustainability and attention to resource scarcity, embraces a material and visual experimentation of incisive poetic gestures that extends their reach beyond the limits of constraining political imaginaries. Paucar’s practice, alongside all other presentations, aligns with Artes Mundi’s support of practices that exist outside the pressures and prototypes of the art market while remaining committed to artistic freedom and experimentation.”
Sancintya Mohini Simpson is a descendant of indentured labourers sent from India to work on colonial sugar plantations in South Africa. Rooted in this familial background, her work navigates the complexities of migration, memory and trauma, addressing gaps and silences within the colonial archive. A large-scale multi-panelled watercolour and gouache work on paper referencing Indian miniature painting traditions as well as the aerial view landscapes common in Indigenous Australian art, is presented at National Museum Cardiff, on loan from MCA, Sydney, Australia. Alongside it is Sugar Vessels, a work in which three black clay vessels (fired in sugar cane mulch) become symbols for body, water and boat, referencing migratory ocean voyages and the dark history and residue of the sugar industry.
The Derek Williams Trust Purchase Prize enables a work of art by an Artes Mundi shortlisted artist to be acquired by Amgueddfa Cymru - Museum Wales for its permanent collection of contemporary art.
Jamie Seaton, selector for The Derek Williams Trust said: “The Derek Williams Trust is absolutely delighted that Sancintya Mohini Simpson has been awarded the Derek Williams Trust Artes Mundi Purchase Prize. The judging panel was impressed by the breadth of the artist’s work which, spanning painting, sculpture, installation, film, performance and the written word, holds to a clear individuality and unity of purpose. The works on paper particularly impressed: the employment of North Indian miniature techniques traditionally associated with mythologised histories serving to universalise the injustices depicted, while the works’ delicacy, accuracy and beauty brings the viewer paradoxically - and shockingly - right back, face to face, with specific horrors.”
As a vital platform of cultural exchange between the UK and global artistic communities centred on the ongoing examination of the “human condition,” Artes Mundi brings together a significant biennial exhibition of contemporary art from impactful international artists. The solo presentation locations for AM11 are: Anawana Haloba and Sawangwongse Yawnghwe at Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Aberystwyth; Sancintya Mohini Simpson at Chapter, Cardiff; Kameelah Janan Rasheed at Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea; and Jumana Emil Abboud and Antonio Paucar at Mostyn, Llandudno. All artists are also represented in a group presentation at National Museum Cardiff.
