This international art prize aims to empower artists with disabilities, providing them with a platform to showcase their creativity and art to a broader audience while connecting them with peers, curators, collectors, critics, and gallery directors.
HERALBONY Co-CEOs and prize organisers, Takaya Matsuda and Fumito Matsuda, would like this award to become “as stately as a social movement”, adding that “this award challenges the conventional capitalist economy centered on able-bodied people and proposes the new normal”.
So who can enter this open competition? The HERALBONY Art Prize welcomes entries from both professional and amateur artists with disabilities from around the world, regardless of age. Applications are accepted until 15 March through their website.
The judges for this prize include Christian Berst (Founder of the Christian Berst Art Brut Gallery in France), Hiromi Kurosawa (Chief Curator at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa / Advisor of HERALBONY Co., Ltd.), Katsuhiko Hibino (Artist, President of Tokyo University of the Arts), and Emina Morioka (LVMH Métiers d’Art Japan Director). Their evaluation criteria encompass a unique perspective and artistic creativity, originality capable of introducing fresh viewpoints and instigating societal change, and a spirit of freedom that embraces diversity.
From left to right: Christian Berst, Founder of the gallery christian berst art brut (France). Hiromi Kurosawa, Chief Curator at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa/ Advisor of HERALBONY Co., Ltd. Katsuhiko Hibino, Artist, President of Tokyo University of the Arts. Emina Morioka, LVMH Métiers d’Art Japan Director.
The Grand Prize winner will receive 3,000,000 Japanese yen (equivalent to just under £ 16,000). The initiative aims in particular to redefine the conventional perception of ‘disability and art’”, recognising differences as potential and striving to create new cultural values through art.
Cover image : Courtesy Gallery christian berst
