kim? Contemporary Arts Centre is pleased to announce the second iteration of the kim? Residency Award, this year in partnership with International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP) in New York. The current nominees, artists selected for this Award by the international jury, are as follows: Ēriks Apaļais, Ieva Epnere, Inga Meldere and Katrīna Neiburga.
The winner of the kim? Residency Award 2016 will spend two months in New York in the Fall of 2016 as the first resident artist from Latvia in ISCP’s 20 year history. The award ceremony for the kim? Residency Award will take place on 31 May at 6PM at the Nordic Club House in Riga, with the participation of Kari Conte, Director of Programs and Exhibitions, International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP), New York. During her visit to Riga, Kari Conte will meet the nominees and visit their studios to discuss her impressions and together with kim? Contemporary Arts Centre select the winner. Prior to this, on 30 May, Kari Conte will give a public lecture about the residency structures and programming strategies at ISCP.
The annual kim? Residency Award is an opportunity for a single Latvian artist or a group of two artists to take part in a residency program with one of kim?’s partner organizations. In the summer of 2015, the first winner of the kim? Residency Award Darja Meļņikova spent two months at KW Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin, while the 2017 winner will head off to the Gasworks Gallery, Studios and International Residency Programme in London.
The aim of the kim? Residency Award is to support promising Latvian artists who have already gained some international recognition in strengthening their professional skills, competitiveness and international contacts, and to raise the profile of Latvian art as a whole. The three-year residency cycle will conclude during Latvia’s centenary in 2018 with a group exhibition by the residents in Riga.
The ten artists nominated in round one of the kim? Residency Award in the fall of 2015 all met the criteria for the award: they actively participate in exhibitions and parallel events in Latvia and abroad, they are aged under 40 years and they have taken part in at least one kim? project in the last six years.
After evaluating the artists’ portfolios, the finalists for the kim? Residency Award were chosen by the following international jury members: Alessio Antoniolli and Robert Leckie (Director, Gasworks & Curator, Gasworks, Gallery, Studios and International Residency Programme, London), Anne Barlow (Director, Art in General, New York), Kari Conte (Director of Programs and Exhibitions, International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP), New York), Maria Lind (Director, Tensta Konsthall, Stockholm; Artistic director, 11th Gwangju Biennale 2016) and Nicolaus Schafhausen (Director, Kunsthalle Wien), Adela Yawitz (Curator of public events and residencies, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin).
The artists nominated in the final round (Ēriks Apaļais, Ieva Epnere, Inga Meldere, Katrīna Neiburga) received the following assessments from the jury:
“My choice of nominating Ēriks Apaļais for the kim? Residency Award was motivated by an attraction to his paintings and his direct, contemporary approach to age-old painterly questions of signs and semiotics. I was specifically drawn to the illusions of the deep surfaces he creates on the canvas: His approach to the painting’s ground replaces the traditional “window” frame with that of the screen, and the spaces we know from our interaction with screens. His deep and shimmering grey expanses are then overlaid with distinct, meaningful signs, whose ladening and emptying of signification Apaļais is constantly renegotiating. I believe spending time in a concentrated residency environment and with the resources ISCP can provide would be a meaningful and worthwhile investment in his practice and career.” (Adela Yawitz)
“I believe Ieva Epnere is the perfect candidate for this fantastic opportunity facilitated by the kim? Residency Award. There are a number of reasons why I consider Ieva to show exceptional promise and why she would benefit greatly from the ISCP in New York. Having already completed a residency at the HISK in Ghent, which in her own words “liberated” her practice, she pushed her methods beyond an already impressive oeuvre of photography and video by experimenting with additional media such as sound, installation and sculpture. I think that New York would be fertile ground to continue this line of inquiry and personal artistic exploration. I would like to see how her often Arcadian, a quietly contemplative yet powerful vision, which incorporates an enchanting sense of national heritage, translates in her experience of New York. I think that the environment and lifestyle is at extreme odds with her previous surroundings and would undoubtedly inspire her and enable her work to evolve in manifold different directions.” (Nicolaus Schafhausen)
“I am intrigued by how Inga Meldere’s work speaks to an individual sensibility which takes a variety of forms. Her desire to narrate is articulated with care and precision, whether in the form of contextual installations such as at the Janis Rozentals and Rudolfs Blaumanis Museum, or fake wall paintings as in the old library building of the Survival K(n)it exhibition. The paintings evoke expressive short stories where only fragments of a whole are made available to the viewer. Slightly tongue-in-cheek, Inga Meldere creates poetic moments which oscillate between the past and the present, indicating something unknown or ungraspable which might lie ahead of us. Overall it is a highly personal and solid body of work which would greatly benefit from a residency in New York City.” (Maria Lind)
“Katrīna Neiburga’s work, which spans video, light installations, and set design, is fascinating in its breadth and complexity. Through poetic yet powerful narratives that range from the intimate to the grand in scale, Neiburga reflects on individual and societal histories in personal works around family to video installations that draw on recollections of workers in a former Soviet press and printing house in Riga. Neiburga’s recent collaboration with Andris Eglītis for the Latvian Pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennale was an extraordinary installation of interconnected, kaleidoscopic spaces embedded with screens, inspired by the stories of men tinkering in garages and workshops in Latvia during the Soviet era in the 1970s and 80s. Her ability to work across such diverse media sets her practice apart, and a residency in New York would present a unique opportunity at this pivotal moment in her development.” (Anne Barlow)
The International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP) supports the creative development of artists and curators and promotes exchange through residencies and public programs. Housed in a former factory in Brooklyn, with 35 light-filled work studios, two galleries, and a project space, ISCP is New York’s most comprehensive international visual arts residency program, founded in 1994. ISCP organizes exhibitions, events and offsite projects, which are free and open to all, sustaining a vibrant community of contemporary art practitioners and diverse audiences. Over 1,200 artists and curators from more than 62 countries have undertaken residencies at ISCP.
With an International Residency Program and Ground Floor Program for New York City-based artists, ISCP strives to establish a global network of exemplary artists and curators. Tailored for professional growth, the programs serve as an active mediator, creating visibility and immersion for all of its residents in New York City. ISCP’s programming is conceived to facilitate dialogue and collaboration. Integrated activity areas including the Residency Programs, Exhibition Program, ISCP Talks and Off-Site Projects, make ISCP an unparalleled platform for producing, presenting and contextualizing contemporary art through a diverse range of international perspectives.
http://www.iscp-nyc.org
Acknowledgements: Alessio Antoniolli & Robert Leckey, Anne Barlow, Kari Conte, Maria Lind, Nicolaus Schafhausen, Adela Yawitz
Supporters: State Culture Capital Foundation, Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Latvia, Riga City Council, Nordic Club House, VKN, BIRZĪ, Valmiermuižas alus, Gardu Muti, Diena, Delfi
