WEST PALM BEACH, FL.- The Norton Museum of Art announced the winner of the $20,000 Rudin Prize, a new international award for emerging photographers on the leading edge of their field, but who have not yet had a solo museum exhibition. The Museum’s Photography Committee, along with Executive Director Hope Alswang and Curator of Photography Tim B. Wride, selected Los Angeles-based artist Analia Saban. Saban was nominated by John Baldessari.

“Analia Saban is leading the field in inventive, engaging new work” said Wride. “Her work is characterized by combining photographic imagery with other art forms with stunning results.”

“The Photography Committee is delighted to have selected such a special emerging photographer,” said committee member Beth Rudin DeWoody, founder of the prize and daughter of the Rudin Prize’s namesake—the late Lewis Rudin. “While all of the finalists had something unique and captivating about their work, we felt Analia Saban best captured the spirit of the prize.”

The other nominees for the inaugural Rudin Prize for Emerging Photographers were:
· Eunice Adorno (based in Mexico City), nominated by Susan Meiselas
· Mauro D’Agati (based in Palermo), nominated by Michael Rovner
· Gabriela Nin Solis, (based in Mexico City), nominated by Graciela Iturbide
· Bjørn Venø, (based in London), nominated by Yinka Shonibare

Saban’s work, along with the other nominees, can be seen at the Norton through Dec. 11, 2012.

Through gift and acquisition, the Museum will be acquiring work by all of the artists, including Saban’s works Grid and Folded Horizon.

Saban, who is also a painter, sculptor, and installation artist, was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1980. She received her BFA in Visual Arts from Loyola University New Orleans in 2001, and relocated to Los Angeles where she completed her graduate studies at UCLA in 2005. Whether working in two- or three-dimensions, she is as fascinated by her materials as she is by the final objects she creates. Effortlessly moving between and often combining sculptural forms, painting, installation, and photographic imagery, Saban explores the base materiality of her media as well as its propensity as both a carrier of and a barrier to meaning. Her work creates unique hybrids that are a combination of photography, drawing, painting, and sculpture.

The Rudin Prize is a new international award for emerging photographers. Every two years, five world-renowned artists will each nominate one emerging artist on the cutting edge of the field, who has not yet had a solo museum exhibition. The five photographers will present their work in a group exhibition, and the Museum’s Photography Committee—comprised of Norton curators, collectors, and trustees—will select the winner. The prize includes a $20,000 cash award. It is named in honor of the late New York City real estate developer Lewis Rudin, father of Beth Rudin DeWoody, who is a member of the Photography Committee at the Norton and President of The Rudin Family Foundations and Executive Vice President of Rudin Management Company.