NANA MANDL receives Main Prize of STRABAG Artaward International 2024, Tina Dobrajc receives one of the four Recognition Awards
The STRABAG Kunstforum is pleased to announce the main prize and the four recognition awards of the STRABAG Artaward International 2024.
The STRABAG Artaward International is one of the most highly endowed private art prizes for painting and drawing in Austria: A main prize and four recognitions with prize money totaling
€ 48,000 are awarded annually. The international art award is announced for artists from varying countries. Between 2024-2026, artists from Germany, Slovenia and Austria are invited to participate. From more than 850 applications, 5 artistic positions have now been awarded. Klemens Haselsteiner, CEO of STRABAG SE, awarded the prizes on 27.6.2024 at the STRABAG Haus in Vienna.
Main Prize of STRABAG Artaward International 2024
NANA MANDL / AT
People staring into their phones or posing for selfies in front of mirrors. A series by Nana Mandl who photographed these scenes with mobile phones; her shots depict the stereotypical images that accumulate in our smartphones' photo archives. These representations convey as much about the ways in which we shape our identity and reality as they do about the time and environment in which they were created. While the figures shown are gazing at the glossy, reflective displays of their phones, in Mandl's art they are depicted in patchworks made up of textiles, embroidery, and overpainting. Rather than immaculate smoothness, the surfaces include visible seams and emotive brushwork. Gently shimmering areas intertwine or overlap with harsher woven patterns that almost seem to absorb light. The colors are cheerful, powdery, pastels, recalling advertising campaigns for drugstore chains or bubble tea manufacturers. The figures portrayed look young and seem at ease in precisely this consumer world; these are their self-staged presentations within that context. It is all made possible by a technology that floods our daily lives with information, enticing us to plunge into other realities - and that has at the same time also become part of our identity, replete with personal memories. We consume and manufacture our own images, which we add to the collective pictorial deluge.
Anna-Catharina Gebbers
Recognition Awards
ALEXANDRE DIOP / FR/AT
TINA DOBRAJC / SI
EVA GENTNER / DE
ANDREY KLASSEN / RU/DE
TINA DOBRAJC / SI
Tina Dobrajc, a Slovenian painter born in 1984, earned both her Bachelor's and Master's degrees in painting at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana. Milestones on her artistic path include early recognition from a number of international and local awards. Dobrajc's paintings are primarily figurative, meaning they depict human figures as central subjects that are mostly set within symbolic landscapes, often referencing the Slovenian Alpine region and creating a specific mood or atmosphere." Alenka Gregorič
"I want my work to be confrontational and disrupt the idea that nature is exclusively a place of solace and contemplation. I don't believe that. Nature is a wounded animal, dangerous and rabid, hurt and begging, attacking and fleeing, full of secrets and regret; in order to evoke that for my viewers, I attack and wound them, just as I feel attacked and wounded. I consider myself an animal rights activist and a climate justice advocate. I am an active observer of change, and, with my work, I wish to engage directly with issues that plague and drive my questioning; how can we feel good and safe without taking a hard look around us and at ourselves? Tina Dobrajc
"With our People. Planet. Progress. strategy, we have a clear focus on growth through sustainability and innovation. And our cultural commitment is also uncompromisingly anchored in this business model. We can now look back with pride on twenty-nine years of the Art Prize and almost three decades of promoting young artists and boosting their networking. We are living through an era marked by rapid changes and developments, and, with that in mind, I should like to say how pleased I am that the 2024 award ceremony opens a further chapter with the launch of the new exhibition space at STRABAG headquarters in Vienna: may this year's award winners breathe artistic life into it. My warmest congratulations to the five award winners and I look forward to their solo exhibitions, beginning in autumn 2024.."
Klemens Haselsteiner, CEO STRABAG SE
The exhibition with the works of the main prize winner and the four recognition award winners is on view from 28.6.-16.9.2024 at the Gironcoli-Kristall in the STRABAG Haus Vienna. A catalog will be published for the exhibition. From late September 2024, all award-winning artists will have a solo show at the Gironcoli-Kristall.
Jury Members 2024
The jury was composed of art experts representing all the countries eligible for the 2024 STRABAG Artaward International.
Anna-Catharina Gebbers
Curator Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin
Alenka Gregorič
Artistic director Cukrarna, Ljubljana
Johan Holten
Director Kunsthalle Mannheim
Angela Stief
Director Albertina Modern, Vienna
Sebastian Haselsteiner
Director STRABAG Kunstforum, Vienna
Jury (f.l.t.r.): Alenka Gregorič, Sebastian Haselsteiner, Angela Stief, Johan Holten, Anna-Catharina Gebbers. Photo: Eva Kelety
Outlook STRABAG Artaward International 2024-2026
In the current three-year cycle, artists from Germany, Slovenia and Austria are invited to participate in the STRABAG Artaward International. The application phase for the STRABAG Artaward International 2025 will take place in January 2025.
Photos and additional material
Photos of the award-winning artworks, portrait photos of the five award winners, short texts about their works as well as views of the jury meeting (April 2024, Gironcoli-Kristall at STRABAG Haus Vienna) and the catalog are available for download. All data can be found in the respective file names.
https://www.dropbox.com/t/kqTUPGBbDJns41ZA
Download the catalog here.
Contact information
STRABAG Kunstforum
Donau-City-Str. 9, 1220 Wien
Tel: +43/1/22422-1850
kunstforum@strabag.com
strabag-kunstforum.at