Next artist shortlist for the BMW Art Journey announced during Art Basel in Hong Kong. Abigail Reynolds, Newsha Tavakolian and Alvin Zafra are nominated.

Hong Kong. Following last year’s premiere of the BMW Art Journey, an expert jury announced the third shortlist on March 23, 2016, at the BMW Lounge at the show. As a joint initiative of Art Basel and BMW, the BMW Art Journey enables emerging artist to go on a journey of their own choice to develop new ideas and create new projects.

Three artists showing in Discoveries, the sector for emerging artists at Art Basel's Hong Kong show, were nominated for the shortlist:

Abigail Reynolds (Rokeby, London)

Based in Cornwall, United Kingdom, Abigail Reynolds studied English Literature at Oxford University before pursuing Fine Art at Goldsmiths University. Her interest in books prompts her collages, sculptures, films and most recently, printmaking. The ideas driving Reynold’s work are based on reportage photography books, her interest in networks of association and how our sense of time is affected by technology. She has exhibited at art institutions and galleries in London, Vienna, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Eindhoven. In her presentation at Art Basel in Hong Kong, Reynolds intends to incorporate a large-scale sculpture which will introduce printing her sourced images onto glass for the first time.

Newsha Tavakolian (Thomas Erben Gallery, New York)

Newsha Tavakolian, born in 1981, is a Tehran-based photo journalist and artist. Early in her career she produced photo documentaries in Iran, Iraq, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Pakistan and Yemen and gained international recognition with work published in magazines and newspapers such as Time, Der Spiegel, Le Monde and the New York Times. Tavakolian’s exhibitions include Thomas Erben Gallery, New York, Aaran Gallery, Tehran, and Otto Gallery, Florence. In her recent photography installation for Art Basel in Hong Kong she documents the lives of nine Teheran residents. Tavakolian combines a wall-size scenery with a large video screen and several photographs of varying sizes into an installation drawn from her forthcoming exhibition and book “Blank pages of an Iranian photo album”.

Alvin Zafra (Artinformal, Mandaluyong City)

Alvin Zafra was born in 1978 in Quezon City, Philippines. He graduated from the College of Fine Arts at the University of the Philippines in 2000 and won the Dominador Castaneda Award for Visual Essay. He exhibited at West Gallery, Quezon City, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore, and Mori Art Museum, Tokyo. In his exhibition at Art Basel in Hong Kong, Zafra explores two different cities and their architectures. The drawings presented are based on photographs he took in the National Capital Region of the Philippines and in Hanover, Germany.

All three artists are now invited to submit their proposals describing their ideal journey with the winner being announced in the early summer of 2016.

The members of the expert jury are:

Richard Armstrong, Director Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York

Claire Hsu, Director Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong

Matthias Mühling, Director Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich

Bose Krishnamachari, President Kochi-Muziris Biennale, India

Pauline J. Yao, Curator Visual Art M+, Hong Kong

The jury said of their choice: “This year’s Discoveries sector of Art Basel in Hong Kong was particularly strong which did not allow for an easy decision. The shortlist we ended up selecting is a very talented group of artists with a broad range of geographic background and artistic practice. We are looking forward to find out what they are envisioning for their journey proposals.”

Launched in 2015, the BMW Art Journey is a global collaboration between Art Basel and BMW, which has been created to recognize and support emerging artists worldwide. The prize is open to artists who are showing their work within the Discoveries sector in Hong Kong and within Positions in Miami Beach. Two judging panels, comprised of internationally renowned experts, shortlist three artists, who are then invited to submit proposals for a journey intended to further develop their ideas and artistic work. The winner for Miami Beach, Henning Fehr and Philipp Rühr (represented by Galerie Max Mayer, Dusseldorf), were announced in February, for Hong Kong in early summer.

BMW is a global partner of Art Basel and has supported Art Basel’s three shows in Basel, Miami Beach, and Hong Kong for many years.