2007 Ateneo Art Awards: Nominations Now Open

2007 ATENEO ART AWARDS GLOBAL/VERNACULAR:
NOMINATIONS NOW OPEN

Nominations are now open for the 2007 Ateneo Art Awards, presented by the Ateneo Art Gallery, the country's premier museum of modern Philippine art, along with Metro Society, Y Style, Power Plant Mall, Rockwell Land and Smart Communications in keeping with the spirit of bringing art into the national consciousness.

Established in 2004 to honor the memory of the Gallery’s founding benefactor Fernando Zobel de Ayala (1924-1984), Gina Fairley of Art Monthly Australia calls the Ateneo Art Awards “the most prestigious prize…for an emerging artist of the Philippines.”

The 2007 Ateneo Art Awards are bestowed upon three Filipino visual artists, 35 years of age or under, who have made an outstanding and significant contribution to the definition and development of modern and contemporary art based upon a solo or group exhibition in any public venue held between 2 May 2006 and 1 May 2007. In keeping with the Ateneo’s intent to maintain institutional and professional collegiality, works by artists appearing in exhibitions conceptualized or curated by museum staff within their own premises will not be considered.

Nominations to the 2007 Ateneo Art Awards will be taken from past and present members of the Ateneo Art Awards jury, public gallery directors (commercial and non-commercial) , professional visual artists and art educators residing in the Philippines. The nominated visual artist must be a Philippine citizen, aged 35 years old or below on or before 31 May 2007. Visual artists working or residing overseas are qualified provided that they possess Philippine citizenship. The visual artist must have had a solo or group exhibition in the twelve months preceding 1 May 2007 where the artworks submitted for consideration appeared. All nomination forms must be accompanied by visual documentation in either of the following formats: .jpeg, .tiff, .wmv, .mov or 5R photographs.

The deadline for submission of nomination forms to the 2007 Ateneo Art Awards is on 31 May 2007 at 5.00 pm. The jury of the 2007 Ateneo Art Awards will deliberate on the entries on 6 June 2007 after which a shortlist of 12 artists will be announced in the national press. A second deliberation will be held on Wednesday, 20 June 2007, to determine the recipients of the Awards.

The 2007 Ateneo Art Awards Jury is composed of Ramon E.S. Lerma, Director and Chief Curator, Ateneo Art Gallery; Fr. Rene Javellana, S.J., Director, Ateneo Fine Arts Program; Vince Alessi, Managing Curator, La Trobe University Art Museum, Victoria, Australia; Norman Crisologo, Art collector; Eloisa Hernandez, Assistant Professor, Department of Art Studies, University of the Philippines- Diliman; Fatima Lasay, Independent curator and visual artist; Eileen Legaspi-Ramirez, Curatorial Consultant, Lopez Memorial Museum; Marian Pastor Roces, Member, Ateneo Art Gallery Acquisition Board, independent curator and art critic; Cesare Syjuco, Visual artist, art critic and poet; and Dr. Eugene Tan, Director, Institute of Contemporary Art, Singapore and Co-curator, 2006 Singapore Biennale.

The 2007 Ateneo Art Awards will be conferred at a formal ceremony on 8 August 2007, following an exhibition of the short-listed artworks from 2-7 August 2007 at the Power Plant Mall, Rockwell Center, Makati City, titled 2007 Ateneo Art Awards: Global/Vernacular.

Global/Vernacular is recognition and credence, acknowledging Philippine art has its own nuances yet believing it moves beyond local context to reverberate cross-culturally. It also calls attention to the expansion of the Ateneo Art Gallery Studio Residency Grant, the only program of its kind organized by a Philippine cultural institution. 2007 marks the third year of the Ateneo Art Gallery Studio Residency Grant in Australia, to be held for the first time in La Trobe University in Bendigo, as well as the introduction of the Ateneo Art Gallery Studio Residency Grant in Singapore with Artesan Gallery. Each residency provides one of the three Ateneo Art Awardees with roundtrip airfare, accommodation and a work studio for three weeks, an allowance, as well as an invitation to exhibit at their respective host venues.

Nomination forms of the 2007 Ateneo Art Awards have been sent to museums, art galleries and universities with studio-based fine arts programs. Professional visual artists and those who have not yet received their nomination forms may download it from the Ateneo Art Gallery website http://gallery.ateneo.edu.

For further inquiries on the Ateneo Art Awards, please contact Clarissa Chikiamco, 2007 Ateneo Art Awards Project Coordinator, at 426-6488 or at cchikiamco@ateneo.edu.