I am pleased to have my piece ‘Reclamation’ featured on Blouin Artinfo in an article about the 30 finalists of the Sovereign Art prize 2019.

Read the full article below or on Blouin Artinfo here.

EXCERPT:

Finalists of The Sovereign Asian Art Prize Revealed

BY BLOUIN ARTINFO | MARCH 18, 2019

The Sovereign Art Foundation (SAF) has revealed the names of the top 30 finalists for The 2019 Sovereign Asian Art Prize.

The award — Asia’s most prestigious prize for Contemporary artists — celebrates its 15th edition this year, and 400 mid-career artists from 28 countries were nominated for it by more than 70 independent art professionals from across the Asia Pacific region. The 30 finalists represent a total of 19 countries, making this the most geographically diverse shortlist in the history of the Prize, states the press release.

The selected artists represent innovative Contemporary art practices of their countries, and their artworks explore and encourage discourse on a wide range of subject matters, including ideas of family, identity, growth, cultural heritage, and diaspora; space, time, urban development, and the spatial rhythms of modern cities, amongst others. The artists were shortlisted by an international panel of art specialists who work closely with the artists in their respective regions. The members of the panel include writer, curator, and museum director David Elliott; Jan Dalley —the Arts Editor of the Financial Times; Mami Kataoka, Deputy Director and Chief Curator at Tokyo’s Mori Art Museum; Hong Kong-based architect, artist, and educator William Lim; and internationally renowned artist Zhang Huan.

“"In this, another great year for The Sovereign Asian Art Prize, Korea, Pakistan, and Singapore figure strongly in the judges’ choice, with excellent representations also from Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Macao, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand,” Chair Judge David Elliott said of the 2019 entries. “This must be one of the most diverse manifestations of art from Asia. As many of these artists are still emerging on the international scene, it is a great opportunity to discover their work.”

“Once again, we have an extremely strong selection of work for our 15th Asian competition,” Howard Bilton, SAF Founder and Chairman said of the finalists.

“All artists are nominated by independent experts. We ask the nominators to choose the best artists working in their country today. We get around 500 entries using this method and from these, our judges select the 30 strongest works. This guarantees extraordinary quality and gives our supporters the best possible chance of buying investment quality art. Instead of asking for donations, we provide an investment opportunity.”

According to the release, this edition of the Prize also launches a new award — The Vogue Hong Kong Women’s Art Prize — which will be presented in partnership with the newly launched Vogue Hong Kong. The prize will offer US$5,000 to the highest scoring female artist in the competition (except for the Grand Prize Winner).

The Grand Prize and Public Vote Prize-winning artists, to be awarded US$30,000 and US$1,000 respectively, will be announced along with the winner of the Vogue Hong Kong Women’s Art Prize at The Sovereign Art Foundation’s “Make It Better” Gala Dinner and Auction on May 17, 2019, at the Four Seasons Hotel Hong Kong. The funds raised through the Gala Dinner and Auction will be applied toward SAF’s “Make It Better” (MIB) project — an initiative that provides expressive arts-led learning activities to children living in some of Hong Kong’s most impoverished areas.