Weekly News Roundup, May 31, 2022

Fukuoka Arts and Culture Prize Goes to Shahzia Sikander

Celebrated for her practice of combining the techniques and motifs of Mughal dynasty-era miniature painting with contemporary artistic formats and subjects, Shahzia Sikander was awarded the Fukuoka Arts and Culture Prize by the Fukuoka City and the Fukuoka City International Foundation. The award recognizes creative practitioners from Asia who “foster and increase awareness of the value of Asian cultures.” Sikander was born in Pakistan in 1969 and studied miniature painting at the National College of Arts in Lahore. After continuing her studies in the United States, she began to be featured in major exhibitions including the 1997 Whitney Biennial in New York. She has held major solo exhibitions at museums including the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, the Venice Biennale in 2011 and 2015, and the Istanbul Biennial in 2013, and was recognized as a MacArthur Foundation Fellow in 2006. The honor comes with a JPY 3 million (USD 23,600) cash prize. 

Iranian Artists Spotlighted at Sovereign Asian Art Prize 2022

Iranian artist Azin Zolfaghari has been named as the winner of the Sovereign Asian Art Prize 2022, as announced by the Sovereign Art Foundation at a ceremony on May 26. She will receive the USD 30,000 cash prize for her work Density (2021), part of her ongoing series that explores cityscapes. The main subject in her paintings are slabs of desolate facades that appear to be lifeless, on which the windows, evidencing human presence, stimulates the viewer’s imagination on the events that happen within the structure. The Vogue Hong Kong Women’s Art Prize is conferred to another Iranian artist, Faezeh Baharloo, whose hyperrealistic untitled acrylic on canvas depicts pigeons laying eggs on a monumental sculpture of a female head.

Leeum Museum Names Jeamin Cha as Art Spectrum 2022 Winner

The Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art in Seoul announced Jeamin Cha as the winner of the 2022 Art Spectrum Award, a biennial celebration of an emerging artist. In the exhibition of eight artists and collectives, Cha presented her film-essay Nameless Syndrome (2022), about women who suffer from undiagnosed illnesses and mysterious physical pain, and Maneuver in Place (2022), which captures three performers making nonverbal noises and other sounds in a secondhand bookstore. As the prize winner, Cha will receive KRW 30 million (USD 23,600). The Leeum is run by the Samsung Foundation of Culture. Along with Cha, the exhibition featured installations by Donghee Kim, Mo Kim, Hyeree Christine Mary Ro, Park Seong Jun, Smallstudiosemi, Yuri An, Hyunsun Jeon, and was curated by Kyunghwa Koo.

New Media Artists Awarded by Hong Kong Arts Development Council

Among the winners of the 16th Hong Kong Arts Development Awards, multimedia artist Phoebe Hui has been selected as one of the winners in the category “Artists of the Year.” Her most iconic work is the project at Tai Kwun last year, titled The Moon is Leaving Us (2021), which comprises 48 screens, highlighting the moon’s gradual migration away from Earth at a speed of 3.78 cm annually. She has received HKD 50,000 (USD 6,400) cash prize as a support for her future projects or studies. The other contemporary artist mentioned in the awards is Lo Lai Lai, who received the HKD 25,000 (USD 3,200) Award for Young Artist for her videos on the communication of plants. Launched by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council, the annual awards have acknowledged the achievement of 25 artists and cultural practitioners this year in fields including dance, film, drama, literature, music, criticism, as well as contemporary art. The highest accolade, Life Achievement Award, is conferred to local poet Xi Xi this year.