1st Prize Winner
Mari Slaattelid was born in 1960 in Notodden, Norway, and lives in Oslo. In 1985-87, she studied at the department for the Academy of Art at the Kunsthøgskolen in Bergen, Norway, and in 1987-89 at the Academy of Art in Oslo. Prior to that, she studied graphic design at the College of Art in Bergen, spent a year at the National Academy of Fine Arts in Düsseldorf, and gained a B.A. from Bergen University. In her most recent works, Mari Slaattelid has departed from her examinations of the stylised landscape and focused on the meaning of colour to people, or specifically to women. The works in the exhibition demonstrate how minor changes in the application of paint can involve a great difference in the human expression and how different colour constellations can be used in the world of cosmetics to read or categorise a woman.
2nd Prize Winner
Hreinn Friðfinnsson was born in 1943 in Baer Dölum, Iceland, and now lives in Amsterdam. Between 1958 and 1960, he studied at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts in Reykjavik. After living in various parts of Europe, he eventually settled in Amsterdam in 1971. He was one of the four artists who, in 1965, held an exhibition in Reykjavik and founded the group SÚM, which came to have a significant impact on the young avant-garde scene in Iceland. In 1969, a gallery with the same name was inaugurated. Throughout his artistic career, Friðfinnsson has worked with different media, and has used, for instance, photography, text or found objects to create conceptually and visually poetic works. This exhibition shows three of his works that are different superficially, but similar in that they all subject painting to a conceptual scrutiny.
3rd Prize Winner
Petri Hytönen was born in 1963 in Helsinki, Finland, and lives in Porvoo. After studying in 1982- 84 at the University of Art and Design in Helsinki, he pursued higher studies at the Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki in 1984-88. Hytönen has painted in a variety of techniques, but since 1993 he uses mainly watercolours. The starting-point and theme of his large, imaginative watercolours has usually been his immediate surroundings, something that is reflected in the narrative titles. Popular culture in general, and music in particular, is important to Hytönen’s works. The paintings in this exhibition show figures that appear to have been taken from a fairytale, against a backdrop of a Finnish winter landscape or an autumnal, grey small town.
Scholarship
John Kørner was born in 1967 in Århus, Denmark, and lives in Copenhagen. In 1992-98, he studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Art in Copenhagen. With his open and relaxed approach to painting, Kørner in his works expressively reflects motifs from everyday life, where the figurative elements can dissolve into entirely abstract forms. A recurrent theme in his paintings is the large, white areas of bare canvas, and the lavish use of the complementary colours yellow and purple, colours he says are Nordic and full of energy. Kørner also writes and has published poetry, his own texts and illustrations in numerous Danish periodicals and books.