Weekly News Roundup: May 25, 2023
By The Editors
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Photo of (from left to right) COP SHIVA, winner of the Public Vote Prize; PARUL GUPTA, winner of the Sovereign Asian Art Grand Prize 2023; and ALISA CHUNCHUE, winner of Vogue Hong Kong Women’s Art Prize. Image via Instagram.
Indian Artist Wins Sovereign Asian Art Prize 2023 with Multilayered Work
The Sovereign Art Foundation named Indian artist Parul Gupta as the grand winner of the USD 30,000 Sovereign Asian Art Prize 2023 during its gala dinner and charity auction in Hong Kong on May 19. The Delhi-based artist is interested in how architectural structures shape perceptions of space, with her works often taking geometric and minimalist forms. Likewise, her winning work Notes on Movement - Layer #115 (2022) is a meticulously layered ink-on-paper creation meant to mimic a video-still through implied movement. The awards night also saw Thai artist Alisa Chunchue and Indian artist Cop Shiva bestowed the USD 5,000 Vogue Hong Kong Women’s Art Prize and USD 1,000 Public Vote Prize respectively. From May 10 to 18, the 30 finalists’ submissions were shown at a public exhibition for votes at Hong Kong’s H Queen’s building in Central. This year’s judging panel comprised curator and scholar David Elliott; curator and art consultant Siuli Tan; director of the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Yuko Hasegawa; director of Asia Art Archive, Christopher K Ho; and the Sovereign Asian Art Prize’s 2022 winner, Azin Zolfaghari.
Portrait of EUGENIE TSAI. Courtesy Eugenie Tsai.
Eugenie Tsai Leaves Brooklyn Museum after 15 Years
On May 18, senior curator Eugenie Tsai announced her decision to step down from her position after 15 years at the Brooklyn Museum in New York. In a statement made on Instagram, Tsai expressed her gratitude and appreciation for her institution, which, during her tenure, has become a platform for emerging Brooklyn-based artists. She joined the museum in 2007 as John and Barbara Vogelstein Curator of Contemporary Art before being promoted to senior curator. One of her most significant programs, “21: Selections of Contemporary Art from the Brooklyn Museum,” which was organized with Patrick Amsellem in 2008, highlighted works from the Museum’s collections. She also oversaw exhibitions and projects such as the “Raw/Cooked” exhibition series in 2011, Mickalene Thomas’s solo exhibition in 2012, and more recently, KAWS’s blockbuster exhibition in 2021. In her post, Tsai stressed on her need for a period of “rest and reflection” after the pandemic and her plans to focus on personal projects and “[take] a deep dive back into Asian American art and history.” Her final day at the museum will be June 30.
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LEE BAE, Issu du feu, 1991- , a 7.9-meter-tall stacked charcoal sculpture at Channel Gardens, Rockefeller Center, New York. Courtesy Johyun Gallery, Busan. Image via Instagram.
New York Welcomes Lee Bae’s Large-Scale Charcoal Sculpture
Starting from June 8, Korean artist Lee Bae’s large-scale site-specific sculpture of stacked charcoals will be shown to the public at the Channel Gardens at Rockefeller Center, as part of “Origin, Emergence, Return,” an exhibition co-presented by Busan’s Johyun Gallery and Rockefeller Center in New York City. The nearly eight-meter-tall sculpture from his series Issu du feu (1991– )—meaning “from the fire”—scrutinizes the capacity of his chosen material, charcoal, and narrates a metaphorical life cycle that has been condensed in the presence of time. While the sculpture figuratively materializes the origins of fire, it also exists as a spiritual presence that surpasses its physical form, serving as an entryway to the exhibition. Based on his decades-long exploration of monochrome paintings, which experiment with textures and reflect on the artist’s state of mind, Lee’s sculptures and installations subtly transcends the boundaries of his canvas. The exhibit marks the debut of a Korean artist in this public space. Alongside Lee Bae’s works, “Origin, Emergence, Return” will also feature paintings by Korean artists Park Seo-Bo and Jin Meyerson.
