Hong Kong. Following last year’s premiere of the BMW
Art Journey, an expert jury announced the third shortlist on March 23,
2016, at the BMW Lounge at the show. As a joint initiative of Art
Basel and BMW, the BMW Art Journey enables emerging artist to go on a
journey of their own choice to develop new ideas and create new projects.
Three artists showing in Discoveries, the sector for emerging artists
at Art Basel’s Hong Kong show, were nominated for the shortlist:
Abigail Reynolds (Rokeby, London)
Based in Cornwall, United Kingdom, Abigail Reynolds studied English
Literature at Oxford University before pursuing Fine Art at Goldsmiths
University. Her interest in books prompts her collages, sculptures,
films and most recently, printmaking. The ideas driving Reynold’s work
are based on reportage photography books, her interest in networks of
association and how our sense of time is affected by technology. She
has exhibited at art institutions and galleries in London, Vienna, Los
Angeles, Seattle, and Eindhoven. In her presentation at Art Basel in
Hong Kong, Reynolds intends to incorporate a large-scale sculpture
which will introduce printing her sourced images onto glass for the
first time.
Newsha Tavakolian (Thomas Erben Gallery, New York)
Newsha Tavakolian, born in 1981, is a Tehran-based photo journalist
and artist. Early in her career she produced photo documentaries in
Iran, Iraq, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Pakistan and Yemen and
gained international recognition with work published in magazines and
newspapers such as Time, Der Spiegel, Le Monde and the New York Times.
Tavakolian’s exhibitions include Thomas Erben Gallery, New York, Aaran
Gallery, Tehran, and Otto Gallery, Florence. In her recent photography
installation for Art Basel in Hong Kong she documents the lives of
nine Teheran residents. Tavakolian combines a wall-size scenery with a
large video screen and several photographs of varying sizes into an
installation drawn from her forthcoming exhibition and book “Blank
pages of an Iranian photo album”.
Alvin Zafra (Artinformal, Mandaluyong City)
Alvin Zafra was born in 1978 in Quezon City, Philippines. He
graduated from the College of Fine Arts at the University of the
Philippines in 2000 and won the Dominador Castaneda Award for Visual
Essay. He exhibited at West Gallery, Quezon City, Singapore Art
Museum, Singapore, and Mori Art Museum, Tokyo. In his exhibition at
Art Basel in Hong Kong, Zafra explores two different cities and their
architectures. The drawings presented are based on photographs he took
in the National Capital Region of the Philippines and in Hanover, Germany.
All three artists are now invited to submit their proposals
describing their ideal journey with the winner being announced in the
early summer of 2016.
The members of the expert jury are:
Richard Armstrong, Director Solomon R. Guggenheim
Museum, New York
Claire Hsu, Director Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong
Matthias Mühling, Director Städtische Galerie im
Lenbachhaus, Munich
Bose
Krishnamachari, President Kochi-Muziris Biennale, India
Pauline J. Yao, Curator Visual Art M+, Hong Kong
The jury said of their choice: “This year’s Discoveries sector of Art
Basel in Hong Kong was particularly strong which did not allow for an
easy decision. The shortlist we ended up selecting is a very talented
group of artists with a broad range of geographic background and
artistic practice. We are looking forward to find out what they are
envisioning for their journey proposals.”
Launched in 2015, the BMW Art Journey is a global collaboration
between Art Basel and BMW, which has been created to recognize and
support emerging artists worldwide. The prize is open to artists who
are showing their work within the Discoveries sector in Hong Kong and
within Positions in Miami Beach. Two judging panels, comprised of
internationally renowned experts, shortlist three artists, who are
then invited to submit proposals for a journey intended to further
develop their ideas and artistic work. The winner for Miami Beach,
Henning Fehr and Philipp Rühr
(represented by Galerie Max Mayer, Dusseldorf), were announced in
February, for Hong Kong in early summer.
BMW is a global partner of Art Basel and has supported Art Basel’s
three shows in Basel, Miami Beach, and Hong Kong for many years.