ANDREA BüTTNER WINS 2010 MAX MARA ART PRIZE FOR WOMEN
Iwona Blazwick. director of Whitechapel Gallery and chair of the Max Mara Art Prize for Women, has announced artist Andrea Büttner as the winner of the third Prize. Büttner, who lives and works in London and Frankfurt, was honored at the prize giving ceremony at London’s Whitechapel Gallery this evening. Shortlisted artists Becky Beasley and Elizabeth Price were also in attendance.
The Max Mara Art Prize for Women celebrates the diversity and dynamics that female artists brings to contemporary art in terms of aesthetics and discourse and provides them with a platform in which to reach a widespread audience. It is a unique initiative set up to promote and nurture female artists based in the United Kingdom, enabling artists to develop their potential through the conception of a new work.
Shortlisted candidates are asked to develop a proposal for their desired projects, which is then judged by an all female panel. The judging panel for the third Prize, of which Iwona Blazwick is chair, included artist Fiona Banner; gallerist Alison Jacques; art collector Valeria Napoleone; and art critic Polly Staple.
Büttner will have a six-month residency in Italy, where she can realize her vision. Büttner’s residency will be divided into two locations. The first section will take place from April 26, 2010 at the American Academy in Rome and the second part at the Pistoletto Foundation in Biella. The work will then be offered to the Collezione Maramotti for acquisition and presented at the Whitechapel Gallery in an exhibition in Spring 2011.
Andrea Büttner works in a variety of media, at times using old-fashioned items such as woodcuts and pressed flowers, and is especially interested in the area where art and religion overlap. In the last five years Büttner has held solo exhibitions at Pawn Shop in Los Angeles, Crystal Palace in Stockholm,Goethe-Institute in Dublin, the ICA in London, and in 2009 at Croy Nielsen in Berlin, amongst others. She has studios in East London and in Frankfurt. Büttner said, “I am very grateful for this opportunity and for the support and trust the Max Mara Art Prize judges show in my work. I look forward to my residency in Italy, and the time it affords me to concentrate on developing a new body of work.”
