Award ceremony: March 23, 2017, 1pm
Salon du Dessin
Palais Brongniart
75002 Paris
France
Daniel & Florence Guerlain Contemporary Art Foundation
The Daniel & Florence Guerlain Foundation has announced the names of the three selected artists for the 2017 prize.
Charles Avery, born in 1973 in Oban (United Kingdom), lives and works between Oban and London. Graduate of the Central Saint Martin College of Art and Design. Represented by the Galleries Pilar Corrias, London; Grimm, Amsterdam; and Ingleby, Edinburgh.
Since 2004, this Scottish artist has focused his attention on a single project: The Islanders. Using texts, drawings, sculptures and installations, he describes an imaginary world and in particular a fictitious island while sharing his reflections on philosophy, science or metaphysics. His work has been presented in a solo show at the Edinburg Festival, the GEM in The Hague and in the Frac, Ile de France. It is part of the Florence & Daniel Guerlain collection.
Ciprian Muresan, born in 1977 in Dej (Romania). Graduate of the Fine Arts Academy of Cluj. Represented by the Galleries Plan B, Cluj-Berlin; David Nolan, New York; Eric Hussenot, Paris; Andreiana Mihail Gallery, Bucharest; Nicodim Gallery, Los Angeles; Wilkinson, London.
In his often dark and ironic works, the artist evokes the realities of present day in Romania, the end of communism, the fascination of Western countries. But his work is in keeping with a more global reflection on the contemporary world marked by the end of Utopias, the uniformization of thought and a globalized culture. It has been shown at the Viennese Secession and the NBK, in the Centre Pompidou, in the Witte de With, in the New Museum and in the Romanian Pavilion of the 53rd Venice Biennial. He is present in numerous collections: the Taylor Collection, Cabinet d’Art Graphique of the MNAM-Centre Pompidou and the Florence & Daniel Guerlain collection.
Didier Trenet, born in 1965 in Beaune (France). Graduate of the Villa Arson, Prix de Rome 1997. Represented by the Gallery Claudine Papillon (Paris).
Nurtured by the free-thinking spirit of the 18th century, the artist fills his notebooks with decorative vignettes, cartouches and medallions in reference to the Baroque and often with an ironic touch. Didier Trenet’s work is present in galleries, institutions and exhibitions: Sèvres Outdoors at the Cité de la céramique in 2015 and the 2013 Lyon Biennial. Didier Trenet is in the collections of the Cabinet d’Art Graphique at the MNAM-Centre Pompidou, of the Frac Ile-de-France and of Florence & Daniel Guerlain.
Exhibition and jury
An exhibition of the three artists will be shown in Paris at the Salon du Dessin from March 22 to 27, 2017 at the Palais Brongniart. The jury will meet on March 23, 2017 and the winner will be announced on the same day. Members of the jury are: Christian de Dancourt (France), Raffaella Frascarelli (Italy), Pascale Gérardin (France), Loa Haagen Pictet (Switzerland), Ken Kuchin (United States), Léopold Meyer (France), Beatriz Yunes (Brazil), Florence and Daniel Guerlain (France)
The Prize’s endowment is 25,000 EUR: 15,000 EUR for the winner and 5,000 EUR for each of the two other artists. A work by the winner is offered to a French institution by the Foundation.
About the Prize
This prize is reserved for French and foreign artists, whether they live in France or not, but who sustain a privileged cultural link with France, and for whom drawing constitutes a significant part of their work.
Awarded for the first time in 2007 and biennial until 2009, the Prize honours artists who make any unique work on paper, 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 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 chooses 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, Guerlain, Axa Art, Artcurial, Loticis, the Foundation’s Cercle des Amis, the Salon du Dessin, Beaux-Arts Paris and Champagne Bruno Paillard.
Past winners
2016: Cameron Jamie (United States) / 2015: Jockum Nordström (Sweden) / 2014: Tomasz Kowalski (Poland) / 2013: Susan Hefuna (Egypt, Germany) / 2012: Jorinde Voigt (Germany) / 2011: Marcel Van Eeden (Netherlands) / 2010: Catharina van Eetvelde (Belgium) / 2009: Sandra Vasquez de la Horra (Chile) / 2007: Silvia Bächli (Switzerland)
Press contact
Agence ACC, Caroline Crabbe: T +33 (0)6 10 19 36 31, crabbecaroline [at] orange.fr
