News
2019-10-09
The Young Painter Prize Competition Brings Painters from Across the Baltic States
It is the eleventh time when the annual Young Painter Prize project, an art chronicler of the young generation of painters, will become a platform for the up-and-coming artists from Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. The opening of the exhibition showcasing the works of the finalists of the XI YPP competition will be held in Vilnius on 8 November. The event will also feature the announcement of this year’s YPP winner. The Lewben Art Foundation for many years is among the patrons of the Young Painter Prize.
This year the artists will compete for the award, worth 5,000 EUR, which includes a two month residency in SomoS Art House, Berlin, a cash prize, and an opportunity to hold a solo show in “Pamėnkalnio” Gallery, Vilnius. One of the highlights of the YPP award is that the winner’s work will be included into the art collections of the Lithuanian Art Museum and National Art Gallery which are the possessors of the artworks of the previous ten YPP winners.
As a continuation of the last year’s initiative, friends of YPP—the creative communications agency “Autoriai” and the contemporary art gallery “The Rooster”—will introduce their own additional prizes. The “Autoriai” agency—a close collaborator with the artists of the Baltic region—will offer a “Special mention” cash prize. The winner of the prize will be selected by the dedicated interdisciplinary jury. One of the finalists will also receive “The Rooster Open”, an encouragement award from the “Rooster” gallery which works exclusively with the up-and-coming young artists.
The key objectives of YPP are to introduce the work of the young artists to a wider audience, and help specialist audiences in Lithuania and abroad, which include art collectors, art managers and curators, discover new talents of the Baltic region. To ensure the successful realisation of these goals each year, the YPP organisers host an international jury comprised of a diverse range of art professionals: gallerists, collectors, art theorists, artists, and curators.
This year the YPP project jury includes Vilius Kavaliauskas, the founder and proprietor of the Lithuanian Expatriate Art Foundation and the Lewben Art Foundation, and member of the Russia and Eastern Europe Acquisitions Committee (REEAC); Maarit Murka, one of the most prominent Estonian hyper-realist painters; Arūnas Gelūnas, director of the Lithuanian Art Museum, former Prorector of the Vilnius Academy of Arts, and former Culture Minister; Paulus Fugers, visual artist, curator, and the founder and director of the SomoS residency centre in Berlin; and Šelda Pukite, Latvian art critic and curator.
Project patrons: Mindaugas Raila, Nicolas Oritz, Dali van Rooij Rakutyte, Lewben Art Foundation and Bajorunas/Sarnoff Foundation.
