Skoda Prize, one of the most significant platforms for Indian contemporary art, has announced the list of artists for the third edition of this prize. Top 20 artists have been chosen from all over the country by the esteemed juries which include Anupam Poddar (co-founder of Devi Art foundation) and prominent Indian artist Sheela Gowda along with the writer historian and curator, Mirjam Varadinis. The jury is headed by the prominent Indian art critic and historian Geeta Kapur.
This year the Skoda prize attracted a large pool of applicants from all over the country, who applied for the prize. The top 20 names selected for the Skoda Prize’s third edition mainly comes from the regions and cities like; Mumbai, Delhi/NCR, Kolkata, Pune, Bangalore, Baroda and Karnataka.
The shortlisted artists for the prize includes Adip Dutta, CAMP (Shaina Anand and Ashok Sukumaran), Aaditi Joshi, Aditi Avinash Kulkarni, L N Tallur, Hema Upadhyay, Mariam Suhail, Jagganath Panda, Manmeet Devgun, Rohini Devasher, Praneet Soi, Sharmila Samant, Priyanka Choudhary, Shilpa Gupta, T Venkanna, Srinivasa Prasad, Vishal Dhar, Zakkir Hussain, Tushar Joag and Yardena Kurulkar.
L N Tallur was nominated in the Top 3 for the Skoda Prize last year whereas Vishal Dhar, Srinivasa Prasad, T Venkanna and Jagannath Panda made their place in the top 20 list last year. About half of the artists in the list are women, first time outnumbering the male participants. CAMP is the only collaboration participation this year.
The top 20 selections has been made on the basis of the solo shows that were conducted all over India last year. The solo shows for the top 20 were mostly held at the Bangalore, Delhi/NCR and Kolkata. The works mainly reveals the diversity and depth of the contemporary art that are in practice in India. It also includes installations some of which were site specific and other prints, drawings, photos, collages, videos etc. and also performance arts.
Director of art, Skoda Prize, Girish Shahane said that selection of top 20 was quite difficult as compared to the last year as result of which over half a dozen good shows were kept out this year. He also added that this year’s list includes a generous blend of the emerging talent and established names.
The emerging artists who were included in the Skoda prize include Rohini Devasher who created video installations for permutation at Nature Morte show, Aaditi Joshi (installation for the New Works show at Gallery Maskara), Mariam Suhail ( installation for show ‘Breakdown of shorter concerns’ at Gallery SKE), Priyanka Choudhary ( installation for show ‘Tetanus Midas’), Aditi Avinash Kulkarni (installation for show ‘Alienation of the space’ at Seven art ltd) and Yardena Kurulkar (for installation of show ‘Transience’).
The Skoda Prize mainly offers an incomparable opportunity for the mid-career artists from all over India to showcase their art in front of the country’s prominent artists and to a judicious audience from India and abroad. The top 20 artists will be displaying their artworks at the popular ’20 exhibition’, which brings thousands of visitors each year. The 20 exhibition showcases the most thrilling trends in the contemporary art in the country and receives acclamations from the various emerging and established artists from across India. The Girish Shahane will be curating the top 20 exhibition alongside with the Indian art fair in New Delhi during February 2013. Top 20 artists will get a unique opportunity to have their names in the Skoda Prize year book
