KOCHI: Bangalore-based artist Anup Mathew Thomas has won the prestigious Han Nefkens Foundation - Bangkok Art and Culture Centre Award for contemporary art. Anup who belongs to Kottayam, had won the Abraaj Group Art Prize, Dubai last year.
The Han Netkens Foundation award consists of $ 15,000 towards the production of new work as well as residency and an exhibition at Bangkok.
The international jury unanimously selected him because of his “creative inquiry, which almost transcends the boundaries of photography”.
The jury was very impressed with his patient, methodical approach to the painstaking process of research and documentation over a period of time.
The jury members were: Luckana Kunavichayanont, director of the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre (Bangkok), Hilde Teerlinck, president of the Han Nefkens Foundation (France), Prof Ute Meta Bauer, director of the Centre for Contemporary Art - Nanyang Technological University (Singapore), Dr Yongwoo Lee, President of the International Biennial Association (IBA) (South Korea), Bose Krishnamachari, president of the Kochi Biennale Foundation (India), Han Nefkens (Barcelona).
Anup’s recent participation in group exhibitions include Kochi Muziris Biennale, Kochi (2012); The Matter Within, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco (2011); Generation in Transition, Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw (2011); The Self and the Other, La Virreina Centre de la Imatge, Barcelona (2009-10); and Lapdogs of the Bourgeoisie, Arnolfini, Bristol (2009). Solo exhibitions include shows at Gasworks Gallery, London (2007); The Contemporary Image Collective, Cairo (2010) and Lothringer13, Munich (2013). He is a recipient of The Abraaj Group Art Prize 2014.