An international jury selects the recipients of Martinsons Award 2021
For the past week, Daugavpils Mark Rothko Art Centre received a group of experts in ceramics who convened to select the winners of Martinsons Award 2021, an international juried exhibition of ceramics with a prize fund of 20,000 EUR.
Martinsons Award 2021 is the international juried exhibition of the 3rd Latvia Ceramics Biennale, featuring artists from 38 countries. Out of nearly five hundred applications, an international jury picked the top 120 works from Latvia and other countries worldwide. Over its three iterations, the exhibition has become a leading competitive event in the international ceramics domain with a truly global outreach and standing confirmed by the jury of experts and the great artistic quality of the featured works.
The Latvia Ceramics Biennale was instituted in 2016 and has always featured a dynamic series of events. Although it runs a little differently this year, without loud openings or vast public gatherings, the programme has retained its hallmark scale and quality. It stands a testament to the immense potential of Eastern and Northern Europe as regards contemporary ceramics and represents the ceramics domain worldwide as a field with the broadest and most incredible scope of opportunities. Alongside the habitual decorative objects and sculptural pieces, the exhibition also offers impressive spatial installations and performative works.
The experts invited to work in the jury spent two days assessing the artists’ contributions on site, debating their artistic and technical qualities and distributing a prize fund of 20,000 EUR. Whilst the Tokyo games reward the best athletes, Daugavpils celebrates art and its creators:
Gold Prize
AGNĖ ŠEMBERAITĖ (Lithuania) for “Mimicry”
DAINIS PUNDURS (Latvia) for “Plato’s Dream”
Silver Prize
MARTA PALMIERI (Italy) for “Cloud Mountain 2”
ELĪNA TITĀNE (Latvia) for “Drops”
Bronze Prize
BARNABÁS MÁDER (Hungary) for “Coronation Lace”
UNA GURA (Latvia) for “Mutual Harmony”
Commendation and special prize from Keramserviss Ltd.
LĪGA SKARIŅA (Latvia) for “Coastal Construction”
Commendation
YURIY MUSATOV (Ukraine) for “Ancient Alien”
ATIS ŠNĒVELIS (Latvia) for “Dour”
ELEONORA PASTARE (Latvia) for “Untitled”
Jury:
Claudia Casali (Italy), art historian, director of the International Ceramics Museum in Faenza.
Ilona Romule (Latvia), artist, board member of the International Academy of Ceramics.
Steve Mattison (UK), artist, international coordinator at the International Ceramics Studio in Kecskemét, Hungary.
Arina Ailincai (Romania), artist, curator at the Cluj International Ceramics Biennale.
Kaspars Geiduks (Latvia), artist, MARTINSONS AWARD 2018 bronze winner.
Irina Razumovskaya (Russia/UK), artist, teacher at the London Royal College of Art.
Misun Rheem (South Korea), board member at Korea Craft & Culture Endowment Committee under the Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism; museum counsellor for the Seul Crafts Museum under Seul Metropolitan.
Valentīns Petjko (Latvia), artist, curator, Latvian Centre for Contemporary Ceramics;
Pille Kaleviste (Estonia), artist, curator.
Rūta Šipalytė (Lithuania), artist, MARTINSONS AWARD 2018 bronze winner.
Supporters:
Daugavpils City Council, State Culture Capital Foundation, Latgale Culture Programme, Lighton International Artist Exchange Program, Keramserviss Ltd.
Organisers:
Daugavpils Mark Rothko Art Centre and Latvian Centre for Contemporary Ceramics
