Carnegie Art Award, one of the largest art prizes in the world, is today handed out by Arja Saijonmaa in a ceremony at Stenersenmuseet in Oslo. Three winners and one scholarship recipient share a total of SEK 2, 1 millon. Concurrently, an exhibition featuring 17 of the most prominent Nordic artists right now is opened.
Today the Finnish artist Heikki Marila receives the first prize in Carnegie Art Award 2012. The Swedish artist Ann Edholm and Danish Christian Schmidt-Rasmussen receive second and third prize respectively and Swedish Klara Lidén receives the scholarship to a younger artist. The Carnegie Art Award, which is one of the largest art prizes in the world, is handed out by singer, actor, writer and Goodwill Ambassador for UNHCR Arja Saijonmaa in a ceremony at Stenersenmuseet in Oslo.
In connection with the prize ceremony Arja Saijonmaa will inaugurate the exhibition that for the first time shows 53 art works by the 17 Nordic artists selected by the Carnegie Art Award jury. The jury comprises a handful of the most prominent connoisseurs of contemporary art in the Nordic such as Tuula Arkio, Cultural Counsellor, Honorary PhD in Visual Arts (Museum Director Emerita), Helsinki and Isabel Carlos, Director, CAM – Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon.
The selected participants and their works of art represent a cross section of the sentiment in the Nordic art scene right now. All works of art are made during the last two years and offer a comprehensive presentation in terms of expression and material.
The exhibition will be showing at Stenersenmuseet until January 29th 2012. Subsequently the exhibition tours the Nordic capitals; Stockholm, Helsinki and Copenhagen for one year.
The award recipients
Heikki Marila
Finnish Heikki Marila (b. 1966) is awarded the Carnegie Prize of SEK 1,000,000 for his large-format, expressive flower paintings emerging out of the painting tradition which has given Marila a chance to investigate both the painting process itself and the properties of the materials.
Ann Edholm
Ann Edholm, from Sweden, (b. 1957) is awarded the Carnegie Prize of SEK 600,000 for paintings that demand the viewer’s full attention. Their stringent visual energy and dynamic, and their density place them in a unique sphere of physical experience and mental intenseness.
Christian Schmidt-Rasmussen
Christian Schmidt-Rasmussen (b. 1963), from Denmark, is awarded the Carnegie prize of SEK 400,000 for his visually and narratively taxing paintings. Schmidt-Rasmussen’s recent series of works portrays a number of Danish suburban settings, where the apparently tranquil idyll is revealed as a complex space full of potential, possibilities and stories.
Klara Lidén
The Carnegie scholarship of SEK 100,000 is awarded to Swedish Klara Lidén (b. 1979) for her ingenious combination of readymades and minimalist painting.
For further information and press images, please contact:
Anne Langenskiöld Folke, tel: +46 8 58 86 90 96 or Petra Bowring, tel: +46 8 58 86 90 99
e-mail: artaward@carnegie.se. www.carnegieartaward.com
Please also visit www.scanpix.no for press images from the inauguration.