AMSTERDAM.- ING and
Unseen announced that Karolina Wojtas (1996, PL) has won the ING Unseen Talent Award 2019 for her series We Can’t Live - Without Each Other. She will receive a €10,000 project production fund. Kevin Osepa (1994, CW), selected via online voting, is the winner of the Public Prize and will be commissioned to create new work for the ING Collection. The ING Unseen Talent Award, a joint initiative of Unseen and ING, was founded to offer an international stage for outstanding European photographic talent. ING aims to make creativity and art accessible to a wider audience and, simultaneously, boost the contemporary art world. During the opening of Unseen Amsterdam on 19 September 2019, Kathy Ryan (Director of Photography, The New York Times Magazine) announced the winner of the Jury Prize. Isabel Fernandez (ING Management Board & Global Head Wholesale Banking) revealed the name of the Public Prize winner.
The Jury Prize winner of the ING Unseen Talent Award 2019 was chosen by an international professional jury consisting of Joana Choumali (Visual Artist), Mels Crouwel (Architect and Founding Partner, BenthemCrouwel Architects), Emma Lewis (Curator of International Art, Tate Modern), Kathy Ryan (Director of Photography, The New York Times Magazine) and Sanne ten Brink (Head Curator of the ING Collection). What struck the jury about Karolina’s work was the originality, the personal approach and the fearlessness. It is unusual to see an artist explore the theme of sibling rivalry and the execution is unlike anything we have seen before. These staged scenes can be disturbing to look at, but they challenge us to look into our own childhoods. The jury looks forward to following this artist in the future.
The winners of the ING Unseen Talent Award were selected from five finalists. In addition to Karolina Wojtas (1996, PL) and Kevin Osepa (1994, CW), this year’s finalists were Elena Aya Bundurakis (1988, GR), Ulla Deventer (1984, DE), Irene Fenara (1990, IT). ING Art Management and Unseen selected the five finalists from a long-list provided by the photography platform Futures. Last summer, the finalists created new work for the ING Collection, receiving guidance from Adam Broomberg (1970, ZA), who, together with Oliver Chanarin (1971, GB), forms the internationally renowned artist duo Broomberg & Chanarin. This year's theme was Nature of Change. The result of this work is on display in the ING Unseen Lounge during Unseen Amsterdam 2019, from 20 to 22 September. Adam Broomberg, the coach for the ING Unseen Talent Award 2019: "They've all had the courage to let their old strategies go and embrace a new way of thinking through their concerns. I can't tell you how proud I am of all of them for accepting that challenge. I don't think just one of them deserves the award, they all do! "
