Lubaina Himid, an artist, educator, and curator born in Zanzibar, has been awarded the €50,000 ($55,000) 2023 Maria Lassnig Prize, a biannual award given to a mid-career artist. As the institutional partner for this year’s prize, Beijing’s UCCA Centre for Contemporary Art will host Himid’s first solo exhibition in Asia.
After the death of her father when she was just four months old, Himid’s mother, a textile designer, took her and her daughter to England. In the middle of the 1980s, she began her professional art career, producing pieces that dealt with cultural history, slavery, reclamation, and gender and identity politics. She also worked as a curator, putting on events including “Into the Open ” in 1984. The exhibition, which premiered at the Mappin Art Gallery in Sheffield, England, before touring to other cities, is largely regarded as the first comprehensive look at the work of contemporary Black British artists.
“Lubaina Himid’s bold formal innovations and trenchant historical explorations have established her as one of the most important voices in global contemporary art,” said UCCA director Philip Tinari in a statement. “UCCA is honoured and thrilled to be able to present her work to audiences in China for the first time.”
Himid won the coveted Turner Prize in 2017, making history as the first Black woman and the oldest winner of the award. She has been recognised for her artistic achievements with a CBE and election to the Royal Academy of Arts. She retired from teaching at the University of Central Lancashire as a professor of contemporary art. In 2021, a retrospective of Himid’s work was featured in London’s Tate Modern. The Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, the Rennie Collection in Vancouver, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Tate and Victoria & Albert Museum in London, the Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts in Lausanne, the Museum Ludwig in Cologne, and the Sharjah Art Foundation all have works by her in their permanent collections.
Maria Lassnig, who lived to be 94 years old, came up with the idea for the award. Cathy Wilkes (2017) at MoMA PS1 in New York, Sheela Gowda (2019) at the Lenbachhaus in Munich, and Atta Kwami (2021) at the Serpentine Galleries in London are previous winners.
TNA Editorial
- TNA Editorial
- TNA Editorial
- TNA Editorial
- TNA Editorial
- TNA Editorial
- TNA Editorial
- TNA Editorial
- TNA Editorial
- TNA Editorial
- TNA Editorial
- TNA Editorial
- TNA Editorial
- TNA Editorial
- TNA Editorial
- TNA Editorial
- TNA Editorial
- TNA Editorial
- TNA Editorial
Leave a Reply