Johanna Mirabel wins 2022 Ritzau Artwork Prize – Announcements

The International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP) and 1-54 Present-day African Artwork Fair are delighted to announce the recipient of the 2022 Ritzau Art Prize, Johanna Mirabel (b. 1991), a painter and sculptor whose do the job explores the contradictions and complexities of cultural identity.

The Ritzau Artwork Prize delivers world-wide visibility, experienced development, and occupation-improving residencies in New York Metropolis to promising visible artists from the African continent and of African descent. Starting off in 2020 and continuing yearly for 3 many years, the prize was initiated by ISCP in collaboration with 1-54 Modern African Artwork Good and is funded by Tauck Ritzau Progressive Philanthropy (Vacation). 

Johanna Mirabel, represented by Véronique Rieffel Gallery, Paris, France, was competitively chosen by the 2022 jury of distinguished contemporary African art specialists: Evelyn Owen, Associate Curator at the Africa Center Stephanie Baptist, the Founder and Director of the gallery Medium Tings and Dodji Gbedemah, co-founder and director of Kente Royal Gallery.

“Mirabel has definitely superior command of the medium,” mentioned Baptist, “There is storytelling and historical relevance, but the get the job done stands on its personal with no narrative.” Owen additional, “ Each and every get the job done could occupy one’s ideas for several hours.”

Mirabel will take part in ISCP’s arts residency program from Oct to December, 2022. She will advantage from 24-hour access to a non-public studio, participation in the program’s properly-attended Open Studios, meetings with traveling to critics, possibility to converse about her art and apply in an ISCP public speak, and field trips together with 34 friends from at minimum 25 different nations around the world at any specified time, amongst other program offerings. ISCP’s residencies aim on constructing local community and qualified discourse among the citizens. With an open-doorway coverage and regular situations together with lunches, interior critiques, and gallery walks, citizens are presented a space and system to share their get the job done. Immediately after leaving the residency, Mirabel will be part of an even broader community of around 1,800 ISCP alumni in around 90 nations around the world and a growing cohort of recipients of the Ritzau residency at ISCP. 

Mirabel states, “I am honored and thrilled to receive the Tauck Ritzau Prize, as it represents an special opportunity. I am energized to commence doing the job in the ISCP residency in an setting that will be so appropriate to my creative follow.”

The shortlisted artists for the 2022 Ritzau Artwork Prize were being Ayo Akínwándé and Leila Rose Fanner, represented by 50 GOLBORNE and Band of Vices respectively.

Born in 1991, Johanna Mirabel is a French artist from Guyana and the West Indies. Through her paintings and sculptures, the artist explores pictorial illustration that oscillates in between abstraction, expressionism, and realism. Utilizing lush vegetation, partly present and disparate objects, she stages contradictions and juxtapositions that evoke the inherent complexity of everyday living involving distinctive cultures. Mirabel has exhibited do the job at Véronique Rieffel Gallery, Paris, France L’Orfèvrerie, Saint-Denis, France Août Gallery, Beyrouth, Lebanon and The Hoax Gallery, Milwaukee, United States between other venues. She is also the receiver of the 2021 Prize Hatvany & Fondation de France, as the member and president of the collective La Marge, and the 2019 Prize of Excellence/Grand Worldwide Prize, Takifuji Artwork Award, Tokyo, Japan. Mirabel is represented by Véronique Rieffel Gallery, Paris, France.