NEWS >ARTNOTES

Gary McDonald and his prize-winning painting, Fontana, 2006

animated when announcingthe prize, finding it ‘a great pleasure’ to announce McDonald the winner of the £25,000 award. Kate McGarry, who represents McDonald beamed at the news of his win, while local and international press surrounded the winning artist. A record 3,222 paintings were submitted, with Crowley, Jake & Dinos Chapman, Paul Morrison and Sacha Craddock selecting works for inclusion. The four runners-up were Julian Brain, Geraint Evans, Grant Foster and Neal Jones, who each receive £2,500. The prize coincided with the opening of the Liverpool Biennial and New Contemporaries 2008. www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/walker/johnmoores ❚

PRIZES

The biennial Vincent Award has been given to Lithuanian artist Deimantas Narkevicius. He

secured the prize of ¤50,000 beating co-nominees Francis Alÿÿs, Liam Gillick and Rebecca Warren. Alÿÿs won the first public selected prize of ¤5,000. Peter Friedl, who was originally shortlisted for the prize, withdrew from the competition days before the exhibition of the contestants’ work went on display. Friedl questioned the transparency of the judging process, doubting it would be ‘truly democratic’. The Stedelijk Museum, which presents the prize, dismissed his claims, standing by its selection processes on its website. A panel of six professionals judged the remaining artists who included Manuel Borja-Villel, Ingvild Goetz and Beatrix Ruf. www.thevincentaward.eu Richard Hamilton has been awarded the prestigious Praemium Imperiale for his contribution to painting and his committed ‘excellence and international impact’. Ilya and Emil

ia Kabakov were awarded the prize in the sculpture category. Previous prizewinners include such well-known artists as Gerhard Richter, Jasper Johns, Bruce Nauman and Bridget Riley. www.preamiumimperiale.org ❚

TRILLIONS OF BIENNALES AND TRIENNALES

For many September was a long month for long-haul flights, with notable exhibitions opening across cities in the Far East, including Busan, Taipei, Singapore, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Gwangju and Yokohama. Time Crevasse, the first and hotly tipped Yokohama Triennale, was curated by a familiar international coterie of curators including Daniel Birnbaum, Hu Fang, Akiko Miyake, Hans Ulrich Obrist and Beatrix Ruf. Performance works by Terence Koh, Jimmy Robert, Jonathan Meese, Cerith Wyn Evans with Throbbing Gristle and Aki Sasamoto took place over the opening weekend – all seemingly contributing to the curators’ intention of surveying artists whose practice is characterised by ‘parallel productions’, like for example Meese or Bock, ‘where one can see the production of the thing is part of the thing, and as important as the actual result’. Well, that’s clear then. The Triennial took part of its cue from Obrist and Philippe Parreno’s ambitious and performance-led event Il Tempo Del Postino, which was held at Manchester’s International Festival 2007. www.yokohamatriennale.jp The political landscape in China came under some scrutiny when, during the opening of the Taipei Biennial, Turkish co-curator Vasif Kortun commented that works for the Shanghai Biennale had to be submitted four weeks in advance for governmental approval. Kortun commended officials in Taipei for allowing the display of political and contentious works that he and Taipei-based Manray Hsu had selected with Oliver Ressler (see report p39). The Seville International Biennial opens this month, curated by Peter Weibel, general

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