Firtash Foundation and
the Saatchi Gallery announce the launch of UK/raine the first
open competition worth GB£75,000 for emerging artists from
the UK and Ukraine
UK/raine
continues the collaboration between the Firtash Foundation and
Saatchi Gallery as part of the Days of Ukraine in the UK and
follows on from the huge success of Premonition: Ukrainian
Art Now, which ran at the Saatchi Gallery from 9th
October – 3rd November 2014.
Premonition
was the largest survey to date of contemporary Ukrainian art
in the UK and showcased over 80 works by 38 artists. The show
attracted 137,438 visitors (5,494 per day), making it the only
UK exhibition in the world’s top 20 most attended shows in
2014, and the seventh most popular contemporary art exhibition
worldwide according to The Art Newspaper’s annual survey of
international museum attendance. Premonition also formed part
of the annual Days of Ukraine in the UK festival and the
Firtash Foundation’s ongoing support and promotion of
Ukrainian arts and culture.
UK/raine
launches the first ever open competition for all emerging
artists from the UK and Ukraine who are aged 18-35 years old.
The aim of the competition is to find and support the most
imaginative and talented young artists, including students on
BA and MA courses who are living and working in the UK or
Ukraine or born in either country.
Artists will be able
to enter their work via the Saatchi Gallery’s website into one
of five categories: installation, new media (including video
and photography), painting, sculpture and street art.
A shortlist of 30
artists (six from each category) will be given the opportunity
to exhibit their work over one entire floor at the Saatchi
Gallery for a month-long exhibition running from 24th November
2015 – 3rd January 2016. A winner from each of the categories,
as well as an overall winner will be selected by a panel of
renowned international judges including: Johnson Chang -
Founder of the Asia Art Archive, Nigel Hurst - Saatchi Gallery
CEO, Prof. Dr. Apinan Poshyananda, Permanent Secretary,
Ministry of Culture, Thailand and Oleksandr Soloviov –
Ukrainian author and curator. There will also be a winner of a
separate public vote. All winners will be announced at the
exhibition’s launch and VIP private view in London on 23rd
November 2015.
Each of the
category winners will receive GB£10,000 with the overall
winner of the prize receiving a further GB£20,000. The winner
of the public vote will receive GB£5,000 of production costs
towards their work, project or exhibition in order to support
their future artistic endeavours.
Criteria for
Entries
UK/raine is
open to artists between the ages of 18 and 35 who are living
and working or currently enrolled on a BA or MA course in the
UK or Ukraine, or born in either country.
Entrants will be able
to make their submissions into one of five categories:
installation, new media (including video and photography),
painting, sculpture and street art.
Contestants will be
required to upload a minimum of three and a maximum of eight
images of artworks (maximum file size 5MB, 300px each) or
videos via YouTube or Vimeo, along with a CV and short
artist’s statement (no more than 200 words) in Microsoft Word
or PDF Formats.
Submissions will be
accepted from 10.00am BST on 10th September 2015 until 11.59pm
BST on 20th October 2015
