KIEV.- Dineo Seshee Bopape (South Africa) is the recipient of the Future Generation Art Prize 2017, the fourth edition of the first ever global art prize for artists under 35, founded by the Victor Pinchuk Foundation. The winner was announced by the international jury at the award ceremony in the PinchukArtCentre, Kyiv, Ukraine on 16 March 2017. Dineo Seshee Bopape received a total of $100,000: $60,000 as a cash award, and $40,000 towards the production of a new work.

An additional $20,000 was allocated to fund artist-in-residency programmes for the Special Prize winner Phoebe Boswell (Kenya / United Kingdom).

The winners were chosen by a distinguished international jury consisting of Nicholas Baume, Director and Chief Curator, Public Art Fund, New York; Iwona Blazwick, Director, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London; Björn Geldhof, Artistic Director, PinchukArtCentre, Kyiv and YARAT, Baku; Mami Kataoka, Chief Curator, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo and Curator, 21st Biennale of Sydney 2018; Koyo Kouoh, Founding Artistic Director, Raw Material Company, Dakar; Jochen Volz, curator of the 32nd São Paulo Biennial and General director of Pinacoteca, São Paulo, Brazil; Jérôme Sans, Co-Founder, Palais de Tokyo Paris and Artistic Director, Perfect Crossovers, Paris-Beijing.

Addressing the young artists Victor Pinchuk, founder of the Future Generation Art Prize said: “Contemporary art is the space of freedom. It lets you be free. It even FORCES you to open up. This is so important. People in many countries are afraid. Politicians use this. Nations speak the language of threats. Contemporary art is the antidote.

I am really proud to be together with the 21 most energetic young artists here today and we can confirm that Ukraine is still a very modern country, a hub for contemporary art in the world. Together we create this energy of freedom here in Ukraine for the world.”

Commenting the Future Generation Art Prize 2017, the Jury said: “This edition of the Future Generation Art Prize reveals a generation of artists who draw on social and cultural histories - and systems, to create works of great emotional and conceptual affect. Their work reflects the heterogeneity of our visual world and the political structures that shape it, yet is also grounded in the body or the land. They celebrate forms of knowledge that may be philosophical or atavistic; yet they translate their research into immersive works that have a powerful immediacy.

The Jury was impressed by the quality of installations every artist created for this exhibition, the global span contributed by the nominating organisations and the curatorial verve of the PinchukArtCentre team in realising all the artists’ visions.”

Introducing Dineo Seshee Bopape, the winner of the Future Generation Art Prize 2017, the jury stated:
"An earth sculpture made of rich black local soil acts as a platform for objects, organic forms and geological fragments that represent actions and symbols. The artist creates ceramic hand casts that express gestures of labour and of protest. Her arrangements of minerals, stones and gold leaf suggest forms of extraction. The work is a metaphor for the land and for landlessness; for wealth and poverty; for new life and mourning. Burnt herbs and crystals act as agents of healing for young artist who lives and works in Post-Apartheid South Africa. In recognition of her formal innovation and political symbolism, we are delighted to award the 2017 Future Generation Art Prize to Dineo Seshee Bopape"

Commenting on works by the Special Prize winner Phoebe Boswell the jury said: “In this exhibition we encounter a corridor of virtuoso life drawings, female figures, animated on an epic scale. These naked yet heroic protagonists have stories to tell and they are activated by our presence - we are also invited to contribute our own thoughts and statements. In recognition of the immersive and emotionally charged power of the installation titled Mutumia, a special prize is awarded to Phoebe Boswell.”

The exhibition of the 21 shortlisted artists for the fourth edition of the Future Generation Art Prize is on show at the PinchukArtCentre, Kyiv, Ukraine until 16 April 2017. The show presents new works by the following shortlisted artists and groups: Njideka Akunyili Crosby, 33 (Nigeria / United States), Iván Argote, 32 (Colombia / France), Firelei Báez, 35 (Dominican Republic / United States), Dineo Seshee Bopape, 35 (South Africa), Phoebe Boswell, 34 (Kenya / United Kingdom), Vivian Caccuri, 30 (Brazil), Sol Calero, 34 (Venezuela / Germany), Asli Çavuşoğlu, 34 (Turkey), Vajiko Chachkhiani, 31 (Georgia / Germany), Carla Chaim, 33 (Brazil), Christian Falsnaes, 35 (Denmark / Germany), EJ Hill, 31 (United States), Andy Holden, 34 (United Kingdom), Li Ran, 30 (China), Ibrahim Mahama, 29 (Ghana), Rebecca Moss, 25 (United Kingdom), Sasha Pirogova, 29 (Russia), Kameelah Janan Rasheed, 31 (United States), Martine Syms, 28 (United States), Kemang Wa Lehulere, 32 (South Africa), Open Group (Ukraine).

The Future Generation Art Prize 2017 exhibition is curated by Anna Smolak.

The 21 shortlisted artists were selected from over 4400 artists, from 138 countries, by an international Selection Committee. The Open Group – winners of the PinchukArtCentre Prize 2015, a national contemporary art prize awarded to young Ukrainian artists under 35 – were automatically shortlisted.