AwardSeptember 24, 2020
Amalia Pica wins the Zurich Art Prize 2020
The Zurich Art Prize, awarded annually by Museum Haus Konstruktiv and Zurich Insurance Group Ltd, goes in 2020 to Amalia Pica (b. in 1978). This Argentinian artist is the thirteenth winner of the internationally renowned award. The prize is endowed with CHF 100,000, of which CHF 20,000 go to the respective winner and the other CHF 80,000 are used for the production of a solo exhibition at Museum Haus Konstruktiv.
Amalia Pica enthused the Zurich Art Prize jury by means of her precise engagement with political and sociological themes, based on scientific research and findings. The fact that Pica, with her formal language, shares the same thematic focus as Museum Haus Konstruktiv, was already established in the 2019 group exhibition Concrete Contemporary.
The works exhibited at Museum Haus Konstruktiv bear witness to this interest. One of the works on display is the installational piece Joy in Paperwork, a series of A4 paper sheets marked with stamps that are normally used by authorities for bureaucratic processes. Pica began to ‘draw’ with such stamps in order to counter the tedious bureaucracy of her naturalization process in Great Britain with something playful and fun. In hundreds of drawings, words such as PAID, RECEIVED, CANCELLED or PRIVATE & CONFIDENTIAL are juxtaposed, superimposed and arranged in sequences, thus forming partly figurative and partly decorative motifs.
Amalia Pica enthused the Zurich Art Prize jury by means of her precise engagement with political and sociological themes, based on scientific research and findings. The fact that Pica, with her formal language, shares the same thematic focus as Museum Haus Konstruktiv, was already established in the 2019 group exhibition Concrete Contemporary.
The works exhibited at Museum Haus Konstruktiv bear witness to this interest. One of the works on display is the installational piece Joy in Paperwork, a series of A4 paper sheets marked with stamps that are normally used by authorities for bureaucratic processes. Pica began to ‘draw’ with such stamps in order to counter the tedious bureaucracy of her naturalization process in Great Britain with something playful and fun. In hundreds of drawings, words such as PAID, RECEIVED, CANCELLED or PRIVATE & CONFIDENTIAL are juxtaposed, superimposed and arranged in sequences, thus forming partly figurative and partly decorative motifs.
