The Craft Prize 2007

 

Winner of the Craft Prize for 2007
Funded by Bildende Kunstneres Hjelpefond
(Relief Fund for Visual Artists):

Helene Kortner

This year’s Craft Prize has been awarded to Helene Kortner (b. 1996) for the group of ceramic figures Löwer fra Bohemia.

Kortner took her Masters degree in Ceramics at the National College of the Arts in Bergen in 1995 and has since made a name for herself with ceramic works with imaginative and humorous qualities. Löwer fra Bohemia abides in a fairy tale, mystical sphere; the expressive lions form a complex and rich style which is simultaneously raw and elegant.The jury has in the choice of Kortner emphasized a convincing technical mastery of a large format. She utilises the plastic qualities of clay and has a driven treatment of glazes. The result is both exciting and expressive, bold and playful, with a tendency of excessiveness. The jury has especially admired the exuberant qualities of the work; it demonstrates a genuine joy in the artistic process and thereby imbues ceramics with enormous vitality. Kortner has with this work succeeded in creating an independent work with great appeal.

The Craft Prize is for the first time this year in the amount of Nok 100 000, financed by Bildende Kunstneres Hjelpefond. The Prize also includes a solo exhibition at RAM Gallery. The considerable size of the Prize contributes to emphasising the significance of the Triennial for Norwegian craft artists. The Prize jury was comprised of craft artist and Chief jury member Irene Nordli, Senior Curator at the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design Widar Halén and Art Critic Torild Gjesvik.

Honourable Mention:
Monica Marcella Askim
and Ingrid Askeland

The Prize jury has in addition this year chosen to give honourable mention to two of the participating artists: Ingrid Askeland and Monica Marcella Askim.

Askeland completed her Master of Arts degree in visual art at the Oslo National College of the Arts in 2005 and creates popular culture objects in clay using traditional ceramic techniques such as lead glazes and slip glazes. Askeland carries on a long tableau tradition on vases with a fresh and satirical presentation of her own interests and experiences. Over-dimensioned beer bottles and beer cans make an impresson with their seductive form and narrative vase painting.

Monica Marcella Askim earned a Master’s Degree in ceramics at the National College of the Arts in Bergen in 2001. Askim juggles several different formats in an interesting way and has a very conscious relationship to clay as a plastic material. A major trait of her works, which among other things incorporate unfired clay and chocolate in combination with tiny bulldozers in porcelain, is a type of anti-aesthetic that appears to be both promising and destructive.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monica Marcella Askim,
Tilbake til hvitt / Back to White
Modelled porcelain, marble gravel, dead bird, 2007

Ingrid Askeland, Leaving Las Vegas
Clay, gold, platinum, silicon, fibre-optics,
LED-lamps, 2007, 80x27cm