Presentation

To create a prize about painting and not of painting is challenging at many levels. It defies the conventional codes of what a prize dedicated to painting should be, it challenges the jury, provokes the viewer to think outside the generally accepted set of rules, and also poses a challenge to the artists. Filipa Oliveira, the coordinator of this prize, writes that the increase in techniques used in visual arts and the concept of “Global Age” were decisive in widening the object of the prize. We must not forget that a work of art expresses the context in which it exists, namely the world, the society, the individual, everything and nothing at all. “Contemporary” is thus the adjective that better describes the art presented in this event. Contemporaneity is, to the most part, represented by the youth that constructs and participates in the movements of a period, and also that legitimates them. For that same reason, because it is directed at young artists, this is a contemporary prize, and conveys our belief in and our support of young talent, spreading enthusiasm and stimulating the "contemporary broadness."

Who would imagine, a few years ago, that the first prize of a painting contest was to be a site-specific installation, that the support would be the wall of the exhibition space and that the work would only exist for the length of the exhibition itself. It is also curious to note that the jury evaluated the potential for the work, and not the documentation of the work itself. Awarding the prize to this work was thus like an act of faith: faith in the artist, faith in the artist’s oeuvre, and faith in the vitality and relevance of this prize.

I wish to praise the selection work of the other members of the jury, congratulate the selected artists and the winners of the prize, and thank all the artists who entered the contest. I also thank José Carlos Queirós Carvalho for making available the magnificent space that will hold the exhibition.

José Luís Vasconcelos e Sousa