CCP announces the 13 Artists for 2015
FROM 69 nominated artists, the number was whittled down to the traditional 13 for this year’s the 2015 Thirteen Artists Awards (TAA). On April 29, the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) announced the recipients: Buen Abrigo; Martha Atienza; Zean Bajar Cabangis; Ernest Concepcion; Vermont Coronel, Jr.; Dexter Fernandez; Mark Andy Garcia; Nikki Luna; Hanna Pettyjohn; Mervy Pueblo; Mark Valenzuela; Alvin Zafra; and Jeona Zoleta.
Initiated in 1970, it is CCP’s oldest award program.
The number of awardees was taken from the 13 Moderns, a group of artists who
rebelled against Fernando Amorsolo’s academic style of painting and thus
ushered in modern art in the Philippines.
Given to artists who are less than 40 years old, the
awards started as an exhibition organized by then CCP Museum Director Roberto
Chabet who picked artists who took the “chance and risk to restructure,
restrengthen, and renew art making and art thinking.” Later it was transformed
into a biennial award and then a triennial award.
Nominations were received from October to December
last year, coming from museum directors, gallerists, independent curators,
heads of art and cultural organizations, and former TAA awardees.
The nominations were evaluated by judges, all past TAA
winners—Jaime de Guzman (1970), Mark Justiniani (1994), Julie Lluch (1990), and
Pam Yan-Santos (2009) -- save for Ma. Victoria “Boots” Herrera, Visual Arts and
Museum Division (VAMD) director (and now the Ateneo Art Gallery director).
Each winner will receive a cash grant of P40,000 to
produce new work for a group exhibition at the CCP’s Bulwagang Juan Luna (Main
Gallery), which will open on Sept. 3. The exhibit will be curated by past TAA
awardees Jonathan Olazo and the trophy will be designed by Juan Alcazaren.—Jasmine
Agnes T. Cruz
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