THE VINCENT AWARD

The Vincent Award 2008

The Vincent Award is an important biennial award to stimulate European artists whose work is highly relevant to the art of today. For every edition five artists are nominated and invited to an exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. During the exhibition the winner will be announced and granted the prize fee of € 50.000.

Deimantas Narkevicius winner of The Vincent Award 2008
Lithuanian artist Deimantas Narkevicius (1964, Utena, Lithuania) is the winner of The Vincent van Gogh Biennial Award for Contemporary Art 2008. The Vincent Award, a prestigious prize of 50,000 euro, was presented on Friday 12 september 2008 at the Stedelijk Museum CS, Amsterdam to the artist by Janusz Stanczyk, ambassador of Poland, in the presence of HRH Princess Laurentien of The Netherlands, chairman of the European Cultural Fund. Francis Alÿs (1959, Antwerp, Belgium) was the first artist in the history of the award to receive the Public’s Prize of 5,000 euro. This award was presented to him by the known Dutch comedian and art lover Thomas van Luyn.

Nominees
The Vincent Award aims at stimulating contemporary art in Europe and aims to be a means of communication and discussion within a free, united and peaceful Europe.

An international jury has announced the names of the artists shortlisted for The Vincent Award 2008. The artists in the running are: Francis Alÿs, Liam Gillick, Deimantas Narkevicius and Rebecca Warren. (Peter Friedl has withdrawn from participation on June 19)

The exhibition of The Vincent Award 2008 will be running from June 20 until September 30, 2008 at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. During the Award Ceremonial Day on September 12 the winner will be announced, as well as the winner of the Public's Prize, that is new to this edition.

Earlier editions of The Vincent Award were won by Wilhelm Sasnal (2006), Pawel Althamer (2004), Neo Rauch (2002) and Eija-Liisa Ahtila (2000).

The Monique Zajfen Collection
Under the name The Monique Zajfen Collection, the Stedelijk Museum works in tandem with The Broere Charitable Foundation, initiator of The Vincent Award, on a collection of contemporary art. The fundament of The Monique Zajfen Collection consists of acquired works from winners of The Vincent Award, expanded with the acquisition of other contemporary artworks.

12 September 2008: (from left to right:) Director Gijs van Tuyl, public price winner Francis Alÿs, HKH Princess Laurentien, winner Deimantas Narkevicius + Polish ambassador Janusz Stanczyk