16/11/2017
On 15 November at the Art Museum Riga Bourse, the Latvian artist Katrīna Čemme was named Best Emerging Artist in the Baltics in 2017. The winner was chosen by an international jury, which reviewed works by 76 artists.
The Baltic Young Artist Award public vote was won convincingly by Lithuanian artist Laura Motiejunaite, while the Latvian social media platform LSM.LV vote was won by Lauma Kokoreviča. In total, over 3,000 art lovers participated in the online vote, which is about 20% up on the previous year.
“I am delighted to receive this award, knowing that a lot of emerging artists from the Baltic States aspired to win it. I consider this to be recognition and appreciation from art professionals. When they finish their studies, emerging artists no longer have any institution at their back providing them with support, so this award gives me the opportunity to continue to work,” explains the winner of the Baltic Young Artist Award Katrīna Čemme.
“We are delighted that, even though it has only been presented twice, this award has already become a successful platform for the development of emerging artists. Thanks to the Baltic Young Artist Award, last year’s winner, Juhan Soomets has participated in seven exhibitions throughout the Baltic region during the past year. We hope that this year’s winner’s name will become internationally renowned, and that the presentation of this award will prove to be an important stimulus for her success,” stresses Latvian Museum of Contemporary Art Foundation Chairman of the Board, Romans Surnačovs.
Katrīna Čemme (1989) completed her Master’s degree at the Visual Communications Department at the Art Academy of Latvia. She makes prints and sculptural objects and began exhibiting work in 2012. This year, her works have been exhibited in What is Lost is Lost Forever, kim? Contemporary Art Centre (2017), Oda-X, Gallery LOW (2017), NNN, Latvian National Museum of Art (2017), as well as in Popper Magazine.
The award was launched by the contemporary art platform NOAR.eu and the Latvian Museum of Contemporary Art Foundation, which was founded by the ABLV Charitable Foundation and the Boris and Ināra Teterev Foundation, and is organised in collaboration with the art academies of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. The Latvian Museum of Contemporary Art Foundation will award a prize of EUR 2,000 to the winner and recommend her for participation in the world’s biggest open-call award competition, the “Future Generation Art Prize”. Meanwhile, the winner of the online public vote will receive a prize of EUR 500. In turn, the winner of the LSM.LV platform award will get the chance to advertise one of his future exhibitions free of charge for one calendar month on the LSM portal.
The international jury was comprised of Curator of Finland’s KIASMA Museum of Contemporary Art (now Curator of the Espoo Museum of Modern Art), Milja Liimatainen, Finland; curator and art critic, Aušra Trakšelytė, Lithuania; curator Keiju Krikmann, Estonia; gallerist and NOAR Board Member Andra Orna, Estonia; Curator of the Boris and Ināra Teterev Foundation’s Art in Public Space programme Helēna Demakova; Head of the ABLV Charitable Foundation’s Arts Programmes Kaspars Vanags; and artist and Art Academy of Latvia Prorector and Head of the Painting Department, Andris Vītoliņš.
Ceremony partners: Art Museum Riga Bourse and the Latvian National Museum of Art. Support for the ceremony is also being provided by its official carrier Lux Express, Park Inn by Radisson and Interbaltija AG. Information support: social media news website: LSM.LV and KDI.
