Leopold Bloom Art Award

The significance of the award

The Leopold Bloom Art Award aims to contribute to the cooperation of Hungarian artists and prominent international exhibition spaces, to the international introduction of Hungarian artists and to the integration of the contemporary Hungarian art scene into the international art life. The prize is organised every second year and offers 10.000 EUR that can be used by the winner to cover the organisational costs of an international exhibition and to ensure her/his international presence. The award is a unique opportunity for the winning artist to spend a longer period abroad, to rent a studio space and to build her/his network with the local audience and collectors.

Róbert Batykó, the winner of the award in 2013 with John Ward , the co-founder of the award

The founders of the award, the Irish Mary Mc Loughlin and John Ward - owners of a transportation company, Maurice Ward and also exemplary collectors – are committed to support the contemporary art scene through the Leopold Bloom Foundation. The award is named after the Hungarian-born hero of one the most important works of modern literature, James Joyce's Ulysses. Consistent with the important values of the award and the Irish founder, Leopold Bloom is the symbol of the paradigm-changing art, travelling, internationalism, and last but not least, of Irish-Hungarian relations.

An independent professional recognition

The importance of the award is also guaranteed by an independent jury, composed of three renowned international professionals. A novelty of this year, that the pre-judging process will also be accomplished by a young, talented trio of curators. This also gives more opportunity to foreign experts to have a better overview and knowledge of the Hungarian art scene.

The jury narrows down the number of the 15 pre-selected artists to 5-6 and then picks the winner after having visited each of the studios.

Exhibition of the finalists in 2013 at Museum of Kiscell in Budapest
The members of this year’s jury and their main references:
Dr. Declan Long – Lecturer in the Faculty of Visual Culture at the National College of Art & Design, Dublin; Board member of The Douglas Hyde Gallery Dublin
Susanne Altmann - Presently holds a lectureship in English at the Academy for Visual Art in Dresden
Mark Rappolt – Editor-in-chief of ArtReview since 2006 and also set up its sister magazine, ArtReview Asia, based in Shanghai.

Pre-jury members and their main references:
Catalina Lozano – independent curator, the winner of MARCO/Frac Lorraine Award for Young Curators in 2012, she was working in the nomination committee of Pipa Art Prize Brazil; currently part of the artistic team of the 8th Berlin Biennale
Barbara Sirieix – independent curator
Maija Rudovska – an expert of Artist residencies of the Nordic-Baltic Mobility programme 2015-2017 at Nordic Culture Point.

Easier application process

Based on the experiences of the previous award and on the winners' opinion, the conditions of application became easier. From this year on, the applicants should only present their exhibition concept abroad and the organizers undertake to help finding the most appropriate exhibition space for the winning artist. Another change in is that the winner will have 18 months to organize the exhibition abroad.
The call for proposal is available here: http://leopoldbloomaward.com/competition

Csaba Nemes, winner of the award in 2013

Previous winners of the award

2011 : Róbert Batykó http://batyko2.blogspot.hu/
2013 : Csaba Nemes http://nemescsaba.com/

Schedule:

Announcement of the names of the pre-selected artists: 16th June (Bloomsday)

Announcement of the finalists: 24th July

Award ceremony: 4th September

Exhibition of the finalists in 2013 in the Ludwig Museum in Budapest, with works by Csaba Nemes in the background

The exhibition of the finalists’ works will run from 5 September – 15 November

The award ceremony and the exhibition will take place at the Új Budapest Galéria (Bálna)

Contact:

Nóra Hanka, art historian, project leader (Pepper Art Projects)

info@leopoldbloomaward.com

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