The 14th Künstlerinnenpreis des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen goes to Anja Schrey and Vera Lossau. This year’s two prize winners were selected by an expert jury chaired by Dr. Brigitte Franzen, Director of the Ludwig Forum for International Art in Aachen from a total of 258 candidates. “Both artists impressed the jury with their outstanding imagery,” said NRW Minister of State for Culture Hans-Heinrich Grosse-Brockhoff, commenting the jury’s decision. Armin Laschet, Minister for Women, stressed that “The aim of the Künstlerinnenpreis is to focus more public attention on the quality of artistic works by women, and thus to make a significant contribution to more equality of opportunities in the art business.”
Anja Schrey will receive the main prize of 10,000 EUR. According to the jury, the award acknowledges an artist who is “thanks to the many facets of her art, a role model for the next generation”. Furthermore, “Schrey’s oeuvre is characterised by its complex analysis of our everyday visual culture. Starting from detailed studies of the materiality and absurdity of everyday objects like, for example, handkerchiefs, front gardens or middle-class interiors, in recent times she has been developing larger than life-size colour pencil drawings of individuals or couples. In these works, she repeatedly explores in close-up not only the human figure as such, but also her own image. Her interest is firmly focused on the issue of likeness, on its materiality and performance. In her latest series, Hands, she portrays the painting tool itself.”
Vera Lossau will receive the 5,000 EUR second prize of the Künstlerinnenpreis des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen 2009, which this year for the first time since 1994 has been awarded in the field of painting. The jury’s evaluation: “Playing with classical positions of painting and art history, on a conceptual basis, Vera Lossau creates a form of painting that seeks dialogue with real space, that experimentally explores and transgresses the traditional panel painting. Her non-linear approach leads to open, cross-genre imagery.” The North Rhine-Westphalian Minister of State for Culture Hans-Heinrich Grosse-Brockhoff will be awarding the prizes on 1 October 2009 at 6 pm in the Ludwig Forum for International Art in Aachen and officially opening the exhibition of works by the two prize winners.
For further information please visit: www.frauenkulturbuero-nrw.de
Curated by Dr. Brigitte Franzen
