Contemporary Drawing Prize 2015 selected artists:
Tomma Abts, Jockum Nordström,
Pavel Pepperstein
Award ceremony: March 26, 2015
Salon du dessin
Palais de la Bourse
75002 Paris
Daniel & Florence Guerlain Contemporary Art Foundation
5, rue de la Vallée
78490 Les Mesnuls
France
Following the deliberations of the Contemporary Drawing Prize’s committee, the Daniel & Florence Guerlain Foundation has announced the names of the three selected artists for the 2015 award.
Tomma Abts
Tomma Abts was born in 1967 in Kiel, Germany, and today lives in London. She studied at the Hochschule der Künste, Berlin, from 1988 to 1995, before moving to London, where she won the prestigious Turner Prize in 2006. Already shown at the Berlin and Istanbul Biennales, her works are now in the collections of the Musée national d’art moderne-Centre Pompidou, Paris; the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York; the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; and Tate Modern, London. Her artworks can also be seen at the Daniel Buchholz, greengrassi and David Zwirner galleries.
Jockum Nordström
Jockum Nordström was born in 1963 in Stockholm, where he still lives and works. He studied at the College of Arts, Crafts and Design, in Stockholm, and his works are now in the collections of MoMA, New York; the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; the Moderna Museet, Stockholm; and the Musée national d’art moderne-Centre Pompidou, Paris. In France, his works were also exhibited at the Swedish Cultural Institute, Paris; and at the LaM, Villeneuve d’Ascq in his solo show All I Have Learnt and Forgotten Again (2013). He is represented by the Magnus Karlsson, Anthony Meier, Zeno X and David Zwirner galleries.
Pavel Pepperstein
Pavel Pepperstein was born in 1966 in Moscow. He attended the Academy of Fine Arts, Prague, from 1985 to 1987. Representing Russia at the 2009 Venice Biennale, his works have been shown at the Louvre and the Musée national d’art moderne-Centre Pompidou, Paris, as well as at the Tretiakov Gallery, Moscow, the Russian Museum, St Petersburg, and the Kunstmuseum, Basel. He collaborates with the Iragui, Kewenig, Pace, Campoli Presti and Regina galleries and, after exhibiting at the Castello di Rivoli, in Italy, will take part in the Thessaloniki Biennale: 5 in 2015.
The members of the jury are Chicago collector Don Kaul, Swiss collector Heidi Schwab, Argentine collector Anibal Jozami and Portuguese collector Luiz Augusto Teixeira de Freitas, together with Michèle Guyot Roze, President of the Hippocrène Foundation; Henri Griffon, President of VIA; and Alexandre de Coupigny, co-founder of the agency Royalties.
The award ceremony will take place on 26 March 2015 during the Salon du dessin at the Palais de la Bourse. The winner will receive an endowment of 15.000 Euros and the two other selected artists will receive 5.000 Euros each. A work by the winner is offered by the Foundation to the Graphic Arts Department of the National Museum of Modern Art – Centre Pompidou.
About the Prize
This prize is reserved for both French and foreign artists, whether they live in France or not, but who sustain a privileged cultural link with France (through exhibitions, studies, etc) and for whom drawing constitutes a significant part of their work, whatever their main mode of expression.
Awarded for the first time in 2007 and biennial until 2009, the Prize honours artists who make any unique work on paper or cardboard, 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 and interest 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 responsible for choosing 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 Drawing Prize is sponsored by “Le Cercle des Amis,” Neuflize OBC, Guerlain, Artcurial, Axa Art, Loticis, Le Chêne vert, the Salon du dessin, L’École des Beaux-Arts de Paris, Château Seguin, Voisins Consulting and Champagne Bruno Paillard.
Past Drawing Prize winners
2014: Tomasz Kowalski (Poland)
2013: Susan Hefuna (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 contacts
Agence Colonnes, Claire Galimard, or Lara Fatimi: T +33 (0) 1 42 60 70 10 / contact [at] colonnes.com / www.colonnes.com
*Left: Tomma Abts, Untitled #5, 2013. Crayons and pencil on paper, 84.1 x 59.4 cm. Courtesy Greengrassi, London; Daniel Buchholz, Cologne; and David Zwirner, New York. © Marcus Leith. Middle: Jockum Nordström, I’m a failure, 2011. Collage on paper, 86.5 x 64 cm. Collection Florence et Daniel Guerlain, Les Mesnuls. Courtesy Galleri Magnus Karlsson, Stockholm. Right: Pavel Pepperstein (2015 Drawing Prize), Do you see this rock there? Once I saw this famous White Supreme on the top of that rock. Believe me…, 2014. Watercolour on paper, 30.5 x 45.5 cm. Collection Florence et Daniel Guerlain, Les Mesnuls. Courtesy Pace London.