©MODERNA MUSEET/ÅSA LUNDÉN
Absolut announced today that it has created a new award for emerging artists. It will be called—no, this is not a joke—the Emerging Artist Award, and will be eligible to any artist who has collaborated with Absolut between January 2015 and January 2017. (The company also gives out awards every two years to an artist and an art writer.)
The winner of the Emerging Artist Award will win €20,000 (about $22,800), as well as €25,000 (about $28,500) that will go toward the realization of a project.
The winner will be selected by a jury that includes Simon Castets, the director and curator of the Swiss Institute, New York; Elena Filipovic, the director and chief curator of Kunsthalle Basel; Polly Staple, the director of Chisenhale Gallery, London; and Jack Bankowsky, a critic, curator, and editor-at-large at Artforum. Daniel Birnbaum, the director of the Moderna Museet, will head up the jury.
“There are those rare awards in the cultural field that don’t only honor what has already been achieved, but also function as catalysts for things yet to come,” Birnbaum said in a statement. “The Absolut Art Award has established itself as one of these inspirational prizes, both for the most relevant artists and the key voices in contemporary art writing. I am honored to chair the 2017 installment of the award.”