The artist, born in Vilnius in 1987, was concerned with “raising fundamental questions about where we come from, who we are, and where we might end up”, and follows in the footsteps of Dineo Seshee Bopape, Nástio Mosquito, Carlos Motta and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye as the prize’s laureate.
Emilija Škarnulytė, t 1 ⁄ 2, 2019. ©2019 PINCHUKARTCENTRE/COURTESY THE ARTIST/MAKSIM BELOUSOV
Making up the jury were Pablo León de la Barra, curator at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation, New York; Björn Geldhof, artistic director of the PinchukArtCentre; Gabi Ngcobo, curator of the Tenth Berlin Biennale; Tim Marlow, artistic director of the Royal Academy of Arts, London; and Hoor Al Qasimi, president of the Sharjah Art Foundation and the International Biennial Association.
The Special Prize, with $10,000 of prize-money, was awarded to Gabrielle Goliath (South Africa) and duo Cooking Sections (United Kingdom). The finalists’ work will be on show in Kiev’s PinchukArtCentre until April 7, before it heads to Venice and the Palazzo Ca’Tron. In 2020, a solo show of Emilija Škarnulytė’s work will be held in Kiev.
