BOSTON, MASS.- Katarina Burin has been named the winner of the 2013 James and Audrey Foster Prize, the Institute of Contemporary Art announced today. This biennial award recognizing a Boston-area artist of exceptional promise carries a $25,000 prize and an opportunity for the finalists to present their work in an exhibition at the ICA. Burin’s work, along with work by the three other finalists—Sarah Bapst, Mark Cooper, and Luther Price—is on view at the ICA through July 14, 2013.

“We are very pleased to congratulate Katarina Burin and all the finalists for this year’s Foster Prize. Their work exemplifies the innovation, strength and talent of Boston’s robust art community,” said James Foster, Chairman, President and CEO of Charles River Laboratories and ICA Trustee. James and Audrey Foster, passionate collectors and supporters of contemporary art, endowed the prize with a $1 million gift to the ICA.

“We congratulate this year’s James and Audrey Foster Prize winner, Katarina Burin, whose fictional archive of a Bauhaus-era female architect explores themes of absence and presence through the physical traces of human history,” said Jill Medvedow, Ellen Matilda Poss Director of the ICA. “The Foster Prize is an exciting opportunity for us to celebrate Boston-area artists like Katarina, and expose audiences to some of the most innovative work being made in and by our community today.”

Katarina Burin’s work is based on a fictional character, Petra Andrejova-Molnár, a Czechoslovakian architect working in Europe in the years between World War I and World War II. Burin creates this imaginary identity by producing a fictitious museum installation of Andrejova-Molnár’s drawings, architectural models, exhibition catalogues and photographs. Her work highlights a pivotal moment within 20th century architecture—the design of radically new structures intended to promote modern ideas. Burin’s work demonstrates an interest in architecture and design and how they connect with the history and politics of the interwar era.

The winner was selected by a distinguished jury including Mark Dion, artist; Paul Ha, director of MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, MA; and Ali Subotnick, curator at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA.

First established in 1999, the James and Audrey Foster Prize (formerly the ICA Artist Prize) is key to the ICA's efforts to nurture and recognize Boston-area artists of exceptional promise. The program creates a significant opportunity for locally-based artists to exhibit their work in a leading contemporary art museum, and offers a substantial financial award of $25,000 to the winner. Recipients of the Foster Prize to date include Ambreen Butt (1999), Laylah Ali (2000), Taylor Davis (2001), Alice Swinden Carter (2002), Douglas R. Weathersby (2003), Kanishka Raja (2004), Kelly Sherman (2006), Andrew Witkin (2008), and Amie Siegel (2010). Works by Ali, Butt, Davis, Sherman and Witkin have entered the ICA Collection, as well as by Rachel Perry Welty, a 2006 prize finalist.