NEW YORK.- AXA Art, the world’s only art insurance specialist, announced that Painter Terry Winters is the presenter of the 2008 AXA Artist Award and he has selected Jack Warren as the recipient. Warren will receive the award on December 3rd during a small ceremony at The International Collectors Dinner, co-hosted by AXA Art US CEO Christiane Fischer and Martin Z. Margulies at The Margulies Warehouse in Miami.

Mr. Winters said, “I'm pleased to present the AXA Artist award to Jack Warren, who is a very thoughtful and gifted artist. Through this generous grant, AXA Art is helping in the continuing advancement of his work by providing important support at this moment in his career. I'm happy to be part of this process."

Jack Warren was born in 1970. He lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. Mr Warren notes that his current work "is a commentary on the boundaries of symbolic language". Using loose pages from found books, journals, and magazines, his drawings and paintings present an often random dialogue between his mark-making and the source material.

Over the years, AXA Art has been actively involved in sustainable cultural philanthropic activities in support of the international art community, In 2000 AXA Art initiated a commission-based award for emerging or mid-career artists. Beginning in 2006, the AXA ARTist recognition grant has been awarded to an artist chosen by a distinguished artist.

“How gratifying to continue this tradition of supporting emerging talent such as Jack Warren and to benefit from the input of celebrated American Artist Terry Winters in this process”, commented Christiane Fischer, President & CEO of AXA Art Insurance Corporation

Terry Winters had his first solo exhibition at the Sonnabend gallery in 1982. Since that time, his work has been the subject of numerous museum exhibitions and has been included in three Whitney Biennials. Currently, an exhibition of new drawings and paintings, Terry Winters/Knotted Graphs, is on view at the Matthew Marks Gallery, New York. The Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin is organizing a ten year survey of Winters’s work opening in June 2009.

In 2007 the AXA Artist Award was presented by Nancy Rubins to Katie Grinnan and in 2006, Elizabeth Murray selected Suzanne McClelland to receive the award.

The AXA Artist award is open to all aspects of visual arts. There are no restrictions in terms of age, gender, race, religion or nationality.