Dallas, Texas, September 30, 2015 – The Nasher Sculpture Center announced today that Colombian artist Doris Salcedo will be the first recipient of the Nasher Prize, an annual international award presented to a living artist who has had an extraordinary impact on the field of sculpture. Salcedo was selected by an international jury and will receive the $100,000 prize, along with a commemorative award designed by architect Renzo Piano, at a gala dinner at the Nasher Sculpture Center on April 2, 2016.
Salcedo is a Bogotá-based sculptor and installation artist who, for the past three decades, has addressed the human toll of civil and political conflict and acts of war through works that variously commemorate, memorialize, and investigate personal, social, and historical traumas. Turning her attention both towards the struggles within her own homeland, which has had the longest-lasting civil conflict in the Western Hemisphere, as well as to political turmoil internationally, she addresses the persistent issues of colonialism, racism, and social injustice, and the need to mourn the deaths that follow in their wake.
As one of a few institutions worldwide dedicated exclusively to the study and appreciation of modern and contemporary sculpture, the Nasher Sculpture Center established the Nasher Prize to extend that mission and commitment by recognizing artists who have had a significant impact on the understanding of the art form.
“We created the Nasher Prize in order to recognize an artist whose work has enriched our vision of what sculpture can be,” said Nasher Sculpture Center Director Jeremy Strick. “Over the course of the past 30 years, through her use of meaningful, everyday materials, often in unexpected and socially-charged public spaces in her native Colombia and elsewhere around the world, Doris Salcedo has created a body of work that is both aesthetically striking and politically resonant. With this subtle and deeply evocative work, she has bravely challenged us to consider more fully the deep connections between place, history, and objects that carry the weight of collective memory, suggesting avenues of thinking that tie together object-making and potent social action. Our mission at the Nasher is to support the creation of new sculpture and to expand our understanding of what sculpture is, and Doris Salcedo continues to powerfully point the art form in ever-more provocative and insightful directions.”
“The Prize is very meaningful to me because I believe my task as an artist is to make connections—to connect worlds that normally are unconnected, like art and politics, like the experience of the lost lives of victims of political violence with the experience and memories of the viewers who approach or contemplate the work—and I think the Prize will widen this audience,” said Doris Salcedo. “The prize helps to acknowledge that in the midst of violence, in the midst of political conflict, there is room for thought and room for producing art that is meaningful to all of us.”
Salcedo was selected by an international jury of museum directors, curators, artists, and art historians who have an expertise in the field of sculpture. The 2016 Nasher Prize jurors were: Phyllida Barlow, artist; Lynne Cooke, Senior Curator of Special Projects in Modern Art, National Gallery of Art; Okwui Enwezor, Director, Haus der Kunst; Yuko Hasegawa, Chief Curator of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo (MOT); Steven Nash, founding Director of the Nasher Sculpture Center and Director Emeritus of the Palm Springs Art Museum; Alexander Potts, art historian; and Sir Nicholas Serota, Director, Tate.
“It is a great responsibility to select the first winner of a new prize, as it sets the tone for what the prize can and is willing to achieve,” said Tate Director Sir Nicholas Serota. “In selecting a winner, we wanted to choose someone whose work was not only innovative, challenging, and significant, but also someone whose work continues to take risks, and address the changing contemporary conditions. From the outset, Doris Salcedo has created memorable work that deals with conflict. Most importantly, her work continues to evolve and change, both conceptually and aesthetically, as it addresses those social and political issues most relevant to us today.”
The inaugural Nasher Prize is generously co-chaired by Jennifer Eagle and Catherine Rose. They have helped garner support for the prize and its attendant programs, including a series of public programs called Nasher Prize Dialogues, which are intended to foster international awareness of sculpture and of the Nasher Prize, and to stimulate discussion and debate. These programs—including panel discussions, lectures, and symposia—will be held in cities around the world on a yearly basis, offering engagement with various audiences, and providing myriad perspectives and insight into the ever-expanding field of sculpture. The first program, a panel discussion called Why Sculpture Now?, will take place in London on October 11 at the Institute of Contemporary Arts. Organized in association with The Henry Moore Institute and the Institute of Contemporary Arts, the panel will include Okwui Enwezor, Director Haus Der Kunst and Nasher Prize juror; artist and Nasher Prize juror, Phyllida Barlow; artists Michael Dean and Eva Rothschild; and Nasher Sculpture Center Chief Curator Jed Morse. The panel will be moderated by Lisa Le Feuvre, Head of Sculpture Studies at the Henry Moore Institute. The second Nasher Prize Dialogues program will be a lecture by the inaugural Nasher Prize Laureate, Doris Salcedo, on April 1, 2016 at Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Dallas.
About Doris Salcedo
Born in Bogotá, Colombia in 1958, Doris Salcedo is a sculpture and installation artist who, for the past three decades, has addressed modern day conflict in both Colombia and abroad, through the lens of quietly poetic sculpture and installation work. Employing everyday objects and domestic materials, Salcedo creates works that serve as monuments to moments of political crisis or tragedy, suffusing the quotidian objects with layered meaning. Her early works, like La Casa Viuda (1992-1995), which delved into Colombia’s recent political history, combined household furniture with textiles to create haunting, minimalist installations. In the decades since, Salcedo has gone on to create larger installations—such as Noviembre 6 y 7 (2002), a work commemorating the seizing of the Supreme Court in Bogotá, installed in the city’s Palace of Justice—taking over galleries and unusual spaces to create politically and psychologically charged environments that provide an immersive experience for viewers.
Salcedo is the subject of an eponymous solo exhibition currently at the Guggenheim, New York, which originated at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, and will travel to the Pérez Art Museum in Miami. In 2007, her work Shibboleth was featured in the Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall. Additional past solo exhibitions include: The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York (1998); San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (1999 and 2005); Tate Britain, London (1999); Camden Arts Center, London (2001); Inhotim, Centro de Arte Contemporânea, Belo Horizonte, (2008); MUAC, Mexico, Moderna Museet, Malmö and CAM Gulbenkian, Lisbon (2011); MAXXI Rome and Pinacoteca São Paulo (2012); and Hiroshima Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima City, Japan (2014). Salcedo has also been included in notable group exhibitions internationally including: XXIV São Paulo Biennial (1998); Documenta XI, Kassel (2002); 8th Istanbul Biennial (2003); ‘NeoHooDoo,’ PS1 Contemporary Art Center, New York and The Menil Collection, Houston (2008); and ‘The New Décor,’ Hayward Gallery, London (2010).
Nasher Prize Sponsors
The Nasher Prize is being co-presented by luxury car company Aston Martin and JPMorgan Chase & Co. In addition, Nancy A. Nasher and David J. Haemisegger have commissioned architect Renzo Piano, who designed the Nasher Sculpture Center, to create the award object to be given to each Nasher Prize laureate. Generous support also comes from the Neiman Marcus Foundation, the Arts Youth Education Sponsor of the Community Weekend; the Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek, the Preferred Dallas Hotel Sponsor; and media partner, FD magazine.
Major sponsors of Nasher Prize include, Howard and Cindy Rachofsky, Catherine and Will Rose, Nancy and Clint Carlson, Howard and Fanchon Hallam, Allen and Kelli Questrom, The Eugene McDermott Foundation, and Deedie and Edward W. Rose III.
About the Nasher Sculpture Center
Located in the heart of the Dallas Arts District, the Nasher Sculpture Center is home to the Raymond and Patsy Nasher Collection, one of the finest collections of modern and contemporary sculpture in the world, featuring more than 300 masterpieces by Calder, de Kooning, di Suvero, Giacometti, Gormley, Hepworth, Kelly, Matisse, Miró, Moore, Picasso, Rodin, Serra, and Shapiro, among others.
The longtime dream of the late Nashers, the museum occupies a 2.4 acre site and is comprised of a 55,000 square-foot building designed by world-renowned architect Renzo Piano, and a 1.4 acre garden designed in collaboration with landscape architect Peter Walker. The museum seamlessly integrates the indoor galleries with the outdoor garden spaces, creating a museum experience unlike any other in the world. On view in the light-filled galleries and amid the garden grounds are a rotating selection of works from the Collection, as well as important exhibitions of modern and contemporary sculpture, including Sightings, a series of small-scale exhibitions and site-specific installations that explore new work by established and emerging artists. In addition to the indoor and outdoor gallery spaces, the Center contains an auditorium, education and research facilities, a cafe, and a store.
Conceived for the exhibition, study, and conservation of modern and contemporary sculpture, the Nasher Sculpture Center also presents a diverse array of educational and cultural programs in dialogue with the Collection and special exhibitions, such as 360: Artists, Critics, Curators, a lecture series featuring art-world visionaries in conversations focused on sculptural themes.
The Nasher Sculpture Center is open Tuesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the first Saturday of each month. Admission is $10 for adults, $7 for seniors, $5 for students, and free for children 12 and under and members, and includes access to special exhibitions. For more information, visit www.NasherSculptureCenter.org.
Aston Martin is the official car company of the Nasher Sculpture Center.