The 2017 Swiss Art Awards
The eleven winners of the Swiss Art Awards have been revealed. They will be awarded today, June 13, by the federal office of culture in Switzerland in a ceremony that will also see winners of the Swiss Grand Award for Art / Prix Meret Oppenheim 2017 — artist Daniela Keiser, architect Peter Märkli, and art and architecture historian Philip Ursprung — receive awards. Each laureate will receive a prize of approximately $25,790.
Notably six out of nine of the laureates for art are women artists, including: Delphine Chapuis Schmitz (1979, Zurich), Anne Hildbrand (1985, Lausanne), Florence Jung (1986, Biel/Bienne), Miriam Laura Leonardi (1985, Zurich), and Micha Zweifel (1987, Rotterdam) and Manon Wertenbroek (1991, Lausanne/Paris). The winners in the art section also include: Jean-Charles de Quillacq (1979, Zurich), Cédric Eisenring (1983, Zurich), and Tobias Madison (1985, New York). Erwan Frotin (1978, Paris) and Jean-Vincent Simonet (1991, Lausanne) will also be awarded in the photography section, with Basel-based artist Egija Inzule (1986) receiving the award for critique, publication and exhibition.
For further details on the prize, see here.
Manon Wertenbroek, Tandem Gris, 2014 | Manon Wertenbroek, Tandem Rose, 2014 © Manon Wertenbroek
New York’s On Stellar Rays Gallery to close and relaunch
It looks as though another gallery on New York’s Lower East Side is set to close, and re-orientate itself as a projects-based enterprise. Set to relaunch as Stellar Projects, an appointment-only gallery located on the second floor of 1 Rivington Street, the gallery’s owner, Candice Madey has confirmed that despite the change, the gallery will still represent the same roster of artists. Details via ARTnews
On Stellar Rays Gallery, Rivington Street
MoMA film curator Dave Kehr to receive French Order of the Arts and Letters
Author, journalist, film historian, critic and curator of film at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, David Kehr is to be awarded the Insignia of Chevalier (Ordre des Arts et des Lettres) by Bénédicte de Montlaur, the cultural counselor of the French embassy, in New York on Thursday, June 15. The award is in recognition of his significant contribution to the arts and literature, with a specific focus on French cinema.
The Oklahoma native’s long career has seen him write for the Chicago Reader, the Chicago Tribune, The Daily News and The New York Times. His most impressive work however, remains that which he produced as curator of the department of film at The Museum of Modern Art, where he began as an adjunct curator in 2013, before fully taking the reigns in 2017.
MoMA film curator Dave Kehr © Variety
Portland University receive $5 million grant for an art museum
Prominent Portland philanthropist and real estate developer, Jordan Schnitzer, has donated a staggering $5 million to Portland State University to build an art museum on its campus. The 7,500-square-foot museum will be the third of its kind funded by Schnitzer in the Pacific northwest—Schnitzer has also previously donated millions to the University of Oregon and Washington State University in the opening of art museums at the respective campuses.
The university is planning a $70 million renovation of the building, backed by $60 million in state bonds, however another $5 million is needed to pay for the project. Details via The Oregonian
Sabine Weiss archives acquired by the Musée de l'Elysée
Swiss photographer Sabine Weiss, born in 1924, has donated her entire photographic archive to the Elysee Museum in Lausanne. Known for her black and white portraits, including those of artists in their studios, Sabine Weiss is the last remaining representative of the humanist photographic movement whose outstanding figures included Robert Doisneau and Edouard Boubat.
The archive will be located at PLATFORM 10, and will include around 200,000 negatives, 7,000 contact sheets, some 2000 slides, fifteen exhibitions, personal photographs, press archives, reviews, correspondences, films, and recordings. Details via Musée de l’Elysée.
