Singapore turns hub of Contemporary Asian Art

With an eye to recognising the Best Emerging Contemporary Asian Artists, the third edition of the Prudential Eye Awards 2016 returns to Singapore on January 19 as part of Singapore Art Week. For the second successive year, Marina Bay Sands is the venue for the prestigious awards ceremony and a two and a half month public exhibition at its Art Science Museum — Southeast Asia's leading cultural institution that explores the inter-relationship between art, science, technology and culture.

The awards were launched in 2014 by the Global Eye Programme, a partnership between Prudential, Parallel Contemporary Art, and the Saatchi Gallery to honour the accomplishments of emerging artists in Asia and to launch a creative educational programme with the British Council.

The award is given in five categories: Digital/Video, Installation, Painting, Photography, and Sculpture. Fifteen artists, three in each category, are vying for the Best Emerging Artist title. 

Internationally acclaimed Bangladeshi artists Shumon Ahmed and Promotesh Das are strongly vying for awards in two categories -- Photography and Sculpture respectively. 

The total prize money amounts to $150,000, of which $20,000 as well as a specially commissioned trophy will be awarded to the winner of each category. An overall winner will be chosen from the winners of the five categories and will be awarded the prize of 'Best Emerging Artist', winning a further 30,000 USD and a solo exhibition at START, Saatchi Gallery in London.

In addition, there are four special awards: Best Asian Contemporary Art Institution, Best Exhibition of Asian Contemporary Art, Lifetime Achievement Award for Asian Contemporary Art, and an Award for Visual and Popular Culture. Two of these awards will be decided by public voting on www.prudentialeyeawards.com.

The event is accompanied by a public exhibition at Art Science Museum which will run from January 16 to March 27, and a solo exhibition at Saatchi Gallery, London for the overall prize winner.

The judges for this award are Johnson Chang, Serenella Ciclitira (CEO & Founder of Parallel Contemporary Art), Honor Harger (Executive Director, Art Science Museum, Marina Bay Sands), Nigel Hurst (CEO, Saatchi Gallery), Fumio Nanjo (Director, Mori Art Museum), Rosalyn D'Mello (Writer, Editor and Art Critic), and Gu Wenda (Celebrated contemporary artist and 2015 Prudential Eye Award Lifetime Achievement recipient). They reviewed the submissions of over 100 artists put forward by curators, critics and art experts from across Asia in order to produce shortlists of three artists in five categories for Best Emerging Artist.

Shumon Ahmed, a Dhaka-based artist, explores the fusion between video, photography and text, creating stories that while seemingly contradictory, are private yet collective. Ahmed's work has been previously exhibited in some prestigious platforms including, the 2014 Kochi-Muziris Biennale, India; Dhaka Art Summit (2012, 2014); Whitechapel Gallery in London, and Fotomuseum, Winterthur, Switzerland (2010).

Promotesh Das Pulak's use of diverse material has played a pivotal role in his sculptural practice. He is interested the duality that lies between the organic natural elements and the combat equipment, which suggests the betrayal of innocence and beauty. Das exhibited in the Bangladesh pavilion at the 54th Venice Biennale in 2011.