VENICE’S KOREAN PAVILION COMMISSIONER, ZOO ART FAIR PRIZE WINNERS ANNOUNCED

The Arts Council of Korea has chosen Eungie Joo, director and curator of public programs at the New Museum, as the first non-Korean national commissioner for the Korean pavilion at the fifty-third Venice Biennale. Throughout her career, Joo has worked closely with international artists from the Americas, Asia, and Europe, focusing on new commissions. She has continued this commitment at the New Museum and has developed the institution’s educational and interpretive programs since joining the staff in 2007. Perhaps most notable among these is the Museum as Hub global partnership, a curatorial-education hybrid with five international partners, including the Insa Art Space in Seoul. As part of Museum as Hub, Joo has commissioned the yearlong Night School project by Anton Vidokle, a residency with My Barbarian, and an important new public installation by Lisa Sigal. Prior to joining the New Museum, Joo completed a four-year tenure at REDCAT in Los Angeles as the founding director and curator of the gallery.

In other news, Scoli Acosta has won this year’s seventeen-thousand-dollar Champagne Perrier-Jouët Prize for best artist at the Zoo Art Fair. Acosta was chosen from the 350 artists represented at the fair based on overall artistic achievements during 2008, as well as future artistic potential. The runners-up are Lynette Yiadom-Boakye and Stefan Burger. Clunie Reid has won the John Jones Art on Paper Award, which comes with thirty-four hundred dollars to support the development of new work. A selection of Reid’s works will also be acquired for the John Jones Contemporary Collection. The other short-listed artists for the award were Tim Braden, Charlie Woolley, and Sam Porritt.