The Seventh Edition of the International Awards for Art Criticism (IAAC 7) 2020, was open to candidates from anywhere in the world writing in Chinese or English about any contemporary art exhibition held anywhere in world or on-line between 15 September 2019 and 20 December 2020. This year the Awards, which are judged anonymously, will be extended to include reviews of on-line exhibitions or specially curated on-line displays of contemporary art. Candidates are invited to write a review of 1,500 words or 2,500 Chinese characters on any exhibition of contemporary art.
* The First Prize will consist of a cash award of 10,000 Euros or the RMB equivalent of this amount (currently, around 80,000 RMB) and a fully funded short programme of visits and meetings in Shanghai or London.
* Each of the Second Prize winners (three in total) will be awarded a cash prize of 3,500 Euros or the RMB equivalent of this amount (currently, around 30,000 RMB).
* A shortlist of around 20 entries will be selected for inclusion in the print publication, Exhibition Reviews Annual, due out in around June 2021.
Opening date for entries: 20 JUNE 2020
Closing date for entries: 20 December 2020
The new panel of jurors for the IAAC 7 will be as follows:
Iara Boubnova, Director of the National Gallery of Bulgaria, Sofia Rhana Devenport, Director of the Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide Ding Ning, Professor of Art History and Theory, Peking University, Beijing Richard Dyer, Editor in Chief of Third Text Pauline J. Yao, Lead Curator, Visual Art, M+ Hong Kong
The Awards are explicitly intended to stimulate critical writing about contemporary art, away from the immediate pressures of the market, media and private or state patronage. They place special emphasis on good writing, thinking, dialogue and research. They are judged anonymously, without reference to age, status or professional background.
Henry Meyric Hughes, Chair of the IAAC Ltd. and Joint Chair of the Organising Committee, adds that: ‘This year, we are widening the scope of the Awards, to include reviews of on-line exhibitions and displays of contemporary art. This is to take into account the period when many public and private institutions have been forced to close. We also hope that it will serve to attract a still wider entry from critics and writers about art.’
Gan ZhiYi, Director of Shanghai Minsheng Art Musuem and Joint-Chair of the Organising Committee for IAAC hope the power of words and arts will travelling all along the time and space, bring us the courage to face this difficult time.
The IAAC 7 are hosted by an International Board, adjudicated by an international jury and organised by the Shanghai Minsheng Art Museum. They are held in partnership with the Royal College of Art (RCA), London, Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) and International Association of Art Critics (AICA). The principal sponsor is the China Minsheng Banking Corporation Ltd. (CMBC).
How to apply
A new system has been set up for the IAAC 7, in order to facilitate submissions. All candidates are invited to log in to the official IAAC website, enter the relevant details and upload their review and any accompanying images. They may then return to the site to add or alter information at any time up to the deadline for submissions.
Selection Process
The objectivity of the selection process is underpinned, both by the recognised professionalism of the Chinese and English-speaking jury members and by the strict anonymity of the judging process.
All valid entries will initially be sorted and shortlisted by the organisers and academic partners in China and the UK, then translated into Chinese (for English entries) or English (for Chinese entries).
The final adjudication will be in English, at a meeting of the combined panel of Chinese and English-speaking judges towards middle of November in Shanghai, and announced to the media immediately afterwards.
Contact Us
Chinese-language:
Shanghai Minsheng Art Museum
Address: Building 3, No.210, Wenshui Rd, Jingan, Shanghai (p.c.:200072)
Tel: +86 (0)21 6105 2121
Email: iaac@minshengartmuseum.com
English-language:
School of Fine Art, Royal College of Art
Address: 20 Howie Street, London, SW11 4AS
Tel: +44 (0)20 7590 4423
Email: IAAC@rca.ac.uk
Introductions to The IAAC 7 Jury Members
Iara Boubnova
Iara Boubnova is a curator of contemporary art
projects. She was born and educated in Moscow, and lives lives in Sofia,
Bulgaria. Since 2018 she has been the Director of the National Gallery,
Bulgaria and the Commissioner of the Bulgarian National Pavilion at the Venice
Biennale. Her curatorial experience includes international and local individual
and group shows, festivals and public art projects. Her curatorial projects
have included the Bulgarian National Pavilion at the Venice Biennale (1999),
Manifesta 4, in Frankfurt am Main (2002), the Moscow Biennial (2005, 2007), the
3rd Biennial in Thessaloniki (2011), and the 2nd Ural Industrial Biennial,
Yekaterinburg (2012), for which she was awarded The Innovation, Russian State
Prize for Curatorial Achievement. She was a founding member of the ICA Sofia
(1995) and its Director until 2018. She is a member of the Artistic Advisory
Committee of MOCA China, Hong Kong, the Moscow Biennial of Contemporary Art,
the Yekaterinburg Biennial, and Autostrada Biennial in Prisren, Kosovo.
Rhana Devenport
Rhana Devenport is a museum director, curator, writer,
editor and cultural producer whose career has spanned art museums, biennales
and arts festivals. She is currently Director of the Art Gallery of South
Australia in Adelaide, and was Director of the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o
Tāmaki, New Zealand, from 2013-2018. Her curatorial focus is on the
contemporary art of Asia and the Pacific, time-based media and audience
engagement. She has made projects with Lee Mingwei, Nalini Malani, Alfredo and
Isabel Aquilizan, Nam June Paik, Guo Fengyi, Jin Jiangbo, Zhang Peili, Yin
Xiuzhen and Song Dong. Rhana was curator for the New Zealand Pavilion at the
Venice Biennale in 2017, for ‘Lisa Reihana: Emissaries'. She was Director of
the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Zealand (2006-2013); Manager of Public
Programmes, Biennale of Sydney (2005-2006); Curator in Residence, Artspace NZ,
Auckland (2005); Visual Arts Manager, Sydney Festival (2004); and Senior
Project Officer, Asia Pacific Triennial, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane,
Australia (1994-2004). In 2018 she was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand
Order of Merit for her ‘Services to Arts Governance’. She sits on the CIMAM
Board (International Committee for Museums and Collections of Modern Art) and
Mori Art Museum's International Advisory Committee.
Ding Ning
Richard Dyer
Richard Dyer is Editor in Chief of Third Text, and a Contributing Editor to Ambit literary magazine. He is a widely published art critic, reviewer, poet, fiction writer and practising artist. His critical writing has appeared in Third Text, Contemporary, Frieze, Flash Art, Art Review, Art Press (London Correspondent), The Independent, The Guardian, The Evening Standard, Time Out, Citizen K (London Correspondent), and many other publications and catalogues. His latest publication is a monograph on the UK based artist Wolfe von Lenkiewicz (Anomie Publishing, 2016); a chapter in Magne Furuholmen: Alpha Beta (Forlaget Press, Oslo, 2013); a chapter in Identities/Identiteetit, ‘On the Construction of an Artistic Identity through Diverse Practice’, (Royal Academy Publications, 2012); Ben Turnbull: Truth Justice and the American Way (The Peter Scott Gallery, Lancaster University, 2012); The Descent of Man: Wolfe von Lenkiewicz (All Visual Arts, 2009); Clement Page: Screen Memories: Picturing Lost Time in the Watercolours of Clement Page (Kuckei + Kuckei, Berlin, 2009); Art on Demand: Custom Colours and Materials: Sébastien de Ganay, Abstract Works Catalogue, 2008–2009 (onestar press, 2009); Controfacciata: Solid Water, Liquid Stone, on the work of German photographer Matthias Schaller, (Ben Brown Gallery, London, 2008); Keith Coventry: Deconstructing the Modernist Utopia (Haunch of Venison, Zurich, 2008); the major monograph Making the (In)visible in the Work of Mark Francis, (Lund Humphries, 2008); Painting: The Essential Verb, (Jerwood Foundation, Contemporary Painters Prize, 2008). Previous publications include Transitive Transduction: Breaking the Integument in the Work of Tony Bevan (Ben Brown Gallery, 2006); Dan Hays: Impressions of Colorado (Southampton City Art Gallery, 2006); Zineb Sedira: Saphir (Photographer’s Gallery, 2006); and the first monograph on the British feminist performance and video artist Tina Keane, Electronic Shadows: The Art of Tina Keane, (Black Dog, 2004). He has conducted interviews with Gilbert and George, Nicholas Serota, Euan Uglow, Gregory Crewdson, Sara Lucas, Andres Serrano, Isaac Julian, Yinka Shonibare, Fred Wilson, Raqib Shaw and Georgina Starr, among other leading contemporary artists. He gave the opening keynote speech ‘Breeching the Integument between Making, Looking and Writing’ at the 45th AICA Congress at the University of Zurich in July 2012.
Pauline J. Yao
Pauline J. Yao is Lead Curator, Visual Art, at M+. She has held curatorial positions at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco and worked as an independent curator and writer in Beijing for six years, during which time she helped to co-found the storefront art space Arrow Factory. Since joining M+ in 2012, Yao has played a leading role in building the visual art collection by overseeing and acquiring works from around Asia and beyond. She is a co-curator of the 2009 Shenzhen and Hong Kong Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture. Yao is a regular contributor to Artforum International and is the co-editor of PODIUM, M+’s online publication. Her writings on contemporary Asian art have appeared in numerous catalogues, online publications, and edited volumes. Recently, she curated Five Artists: Sites Encountered, an exhibition held last year at the M+ Pavilion.
Henry Meyric Hughes, who chairs the jury, as a non-voting member, is an independent curator, writer and editor. He is Honorary President of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA), Paris and was, until recently, the General Co-ordinator of Council of Europe exhibitions. He was a co-founder of the European Biennial of Contemporary Art (2003), Manifesta and President of the Manifesta Foundation, Amsterdam, from 1996-2007.
From 1968-92 he worked for the British Council in
Germany,Peru,France and Italy, ending up as Director of Visiting Arts (1994-96)
and Director of Visual Arts (1986-92). He was the British Commissioner for the
Venice Biennale and the São Paulo Biennial, 1986-92 (Richard Hamilton, Tony
Cragg, AnishKapoor …). He was then Director of the Hayward Gallery, including
National Touring Exhibitions and the Arts Council Collection from 1992-96,
(exhibitions incl.‘Art and Power: Europe under the Dictators 1930-1945',‘The
Spirit of Romanticism in German Art,1790-1990’and ‘The‘British
Art Show 4’).
His recent projects include curating a survey exhibition,
'Blast
to Freeze: British Art in the Twentieth Century' for Wolfsburg and
Toulouse (2002-2003); the Cypriot Pavilion (Nikos Charalambidis) at the 2003
Venice Biennale; a touring exhibition of contemporary art in Norway for Oslo
(2005-2006); and 'No Borders, Just N.E.W.S.', a touring exhibition of young
European artists, 2008. He co-curated the XXX Council of Europe exhibition, 'The
Desire for Freedom: Art in Europe since 1945' for Berlin, Krakow,
Tallinn and Milan, with extensions to Sarajevo, Prague, Thessaloniki and
Brussels (2012-2015). Recent co-publications include AICA in the Age of Globalisation (AICA Press, 2010) and African Contemporary Art: Critical
Concerns / Art Contemporiain Africain: Regards Critiques(AICA Press, 2011,
co-ed.). Contributions to recent publications include essays in various
languages on Pierre Restany, Herbert Read, Dansaekhwa, curating exhibitions,‘The
Reception of British Sculpture Abroad’(Yale) and pan-European
aspects of contemporary art. He has taught and written about curating contemporary
art and been an external examiner at the ENSBA, Paris and RCA, London.
He has acted as an adviser to UNESCO and as a consultant
and general co-ordinator for Council of Europe exhibitions. He is a Board
member of the Institute of International Visual Arts (Iniva) and Matt’s
Gallery, London, and member of the Advisory Board of the Archives de la
critique d’art and editorial committee of the review, Critique d’art, in Rennes,
France. He was appointed Officier des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government
and the Cross of Merit (Bundesverdienstkreuz) by the President of the Federal
Republic of Germany.
Gan Zhiyi, MBA, economist. She used to hold positions in
the management department of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and China
Minsheng Bank, and led several real estate financial innovations. In 2013, she
was in charge for the establishment of Shanghai 21st Century Minsheng Art
Museum and held the position of Director. After the merging of Shanghai
Minsheng Art Museum and Shanghai 21st Century Minsheng Art Museum in 2017, she
has been the director of Shanghai Minsheng Art Museum till now.
In the Minsheng Art Museum, Gan Zhiyi has been working on
promoting the display of contemporary art in China and the international
communication of art and culture. By strategically bringing the financial
management idea and resource into private art museum, she has gradually made
Mingsheng Art Museum become a place where is a platform for art dissemination
and education, and where held a series of international contemporary art
exhibition and public education including the recommended program for
“Croisements Festival” 2015, exhibition “Light!” and “The Shadow Never Lies”;
one of the main activities of “Croisements Festival” 2017, “Sound of
Transparency” (won the “Excellent Exhibition of 2017” award of Ministry of
Culture); the French artist Céleste Boursier-Mougenot’s first solo exhibition
in China, “SONSARA” (a short-listed program of the “Support Program for Young
Curator in National Wide Art Museum” of Ministry of Culture); setting up the
International Awards for Art Criticism (IAAC, receive successively support of
Pudong District Cultural Development Funding), Minsheng Art Archives (receive
the special fund for the development of Shanghai Free Trade Zone) and A-Tube
Space Project; branded public education like “Made in Shanghai” and “Art Museum
Forum” (won the “Excellent Public Education of 2017” award of Ministry of
Culture ).
In recent years, Gan Zhiyi has participated in writing
and compiling catalogues for the exhibitions of the Shanghai 21st Century
Minsheng Art Museum and Minsheng Art Museum, including “COSMOS”, “Non-image”
“Sound of Trsansparency” and “A tribute to sunflowers”.
In addition, she had established a column in
International Finance News, written real estate finance research articles for
Jiefang Daily, Xinmin Evening News, Shanghai Financial News and Labor Daily’s
and had been a guest of financial columns of CBN televisions and radios for 15
years.
Lewis Biggs is a freelance Curator, Writer and Cultural
Consultant. He was Director of Liverpool Biennial 2000-2011, having been a
founding trustee of the charitable company in 1998. The 2002 Liverpool Biennial
Festival 'broke the rules' by focusing on newly commissioned art, much of it
for the public realm, researched collaboratively and realised by a team of
locally based curators. This approach – and its success - established Liverpool
Biennial as an original and significant contributor to the international
spectrum of biennales, and the organisational model it established has become
influential around the world, as competition between biennales forces them to
differentiate their offer.
The success of the 2002 Biennial contributed to Liverpool
winning its (2003) bid to be nominated European Capital of Culture 2008. Lewis
played an active role in the formation and leadership of Liverpool Art and
Regeneration Consortium, which delivered the majority of the City's arts
programmes in 2008, and of Culture Campus, which created links between the arts
sector and three Liverpool universities.
Lewis was Director of Tate Liverpool from 1990 to 2000 –
a decade in which it was the only dedicated Museum of Modern Art in the UK, and
at a time when the Tate 'brand' was associated overwhelmingly with the work of
Turner and Constable. The programme he initiated in Liverpool introduced
contemporary British and International art to new audiences nationally and
especially in the North of England. It included groundbreaking art exhibitions
from Japan, Korea, North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa. The programme's
structure, and accompanying education programme, were influential on London's
Tate Modern when it opened in 2000.
Biggs is now the Curator of the Folkestone Triennial
2017, General Editor of Tate Modern Artists (books on contemporary artists
since 2002), International Advisor, School of Fine Arts, Shanghai University
and Chair, Organising Committee, International Award for Excellence in Public
Art (Shanghai). He was Co-curator, Aichi Triennale 2013, and undertook a
consultancy in 2011-2013 with Osage Art Foundation, Hong Kong.
Lewis is a member of the Board of International Advisors
to the Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai, a Visiting Professor of Contemporary Art
at Liverpool School of Art and Design (he was awarded an Honorary Fellowship at
Liverpool John Moores University in 1998) and an Honorary Professor at Glasgow
University (School of Art). He is active as a trustee of several boards
including the John Moores Liverpool Exhibition Trust (Painting Competition),
Chinese Arts Centre, Manchester, Foundation for Art and Creative Technology
(FACT), Liverpool and Situations, Bristol
Professor Juan Cruz is the Principal of Edinburgh College
of Art, and Design at the Royal College of Art (RCA). He is an artist whose
work employs a broad range of approaches to exhibition-making, including video,
performance, text and site-specificity.
Prior to joining the RCA, Cruz was the Dean of the
Schools of Fine Art, and Director of Liverpool School of Art and Design at
Liverpool John Moores University, where he introduced an innovative model of
research and knowledge transfer with leading arts organisations, including Tate
Liverpool, Liverpool Biennial and Foundation for Art and Creative Technology
(FACT).
Also in Liverpool, Cruz facilitated the foundation of the
Exhibition Research Centre, which saw the school research and develop a series
of leading exhibitions and keynote lectures around the theme of exhibition
studies, attracting international audiences, funding and media.
Cruz is a member of the Tate Liverpool Council, a trustee
of the John Moores Liverpool Exhibition Trust and a board member of the
Liverpool Biennial. He has played a leading role in Arts Council groups tasked
with reaching new understandings about the relationship between HEIs and the
cultural sector in the UK, leading to funding for 'Artist's City', a project
designed to enhance opportunities for artists in Liverpool through better integration
of institutions. He was also a trustee of the A Foundation between 2009 and
2011.
Under Cruz's leadership, Liverpool School of Art and
Design became a partner in 'The Uses of Art', a €2.5-million European project
delivered in collaboration with 'L'Internationale', a key European museum
confederation including MACBA in Barcelona, the Reina Sofia in Madrid, MuKHA in
Antwerp, Salt in Istanbul, Van abbemuseum in Eindhoven and Moderna Galerija in
Slovenia, as well as other collaborating Institutions including Grizedale Arts,
University of Hildesheim and KASK in Ghent.
Cruz is a member of the REF (Research Excellence
Framework) sub-panel 34 and between 2011 and 2014 was a co-opted member of the
executive of CHEAD, the Council for Higher Education in Art and Design. Earlier
in his career, between 1999 and 2002, Cruz was also a member of the Arts
Council National Touring Programme selection panel, as well as a Member of the
London Arts Visual Arts Advisory Group.
Prof. Ling Min
Prof. Ling Min is an associate professor in art history
at Fine Arts Academy of Shanghai University. Prior to this, she served as a
research scholar of art curation at Goldsmiths London and also had leadership
placement in Liverpool Biennial. From 2009 to 2014, she was a key coordinator
of the John Moores Painting Prize in China.
She is currently a member of the Open Section and an
International Vice-Presdient of the International Association of Art Critics
(AICA), Paris and a trustee of John Moores Liverpool Exhibition Trust.
In 2012 she was a keynote speaker of section four of 33rd Congress of the International Committee of History of Art in Nuremberg, a keynote speaker at the Arts Annual Convention in Pittsburgh and the AICA annual congress in Slovakia, and a keynote speaker at the 2014 RMIT public art forum of spatial dialogue in Melbourne.