Guðjón Ketilsson is the recipient of the Art Prize for his exhibition Teikn in Reykjanes Art Museum.
“The exhibition comprised eight works which were connected by a systematic presentation in the exhibition space, all of which revolved around symbols, their significance and “reading” in the widest sense.
Guðjón has held numerous solo exhibitions and participated in group exhibitions around the world. His work can be found in all major museums in Iceland. He has worked in equal measure at drawings and three-dimensional work, as was evident in this exhibition; his artworks are in general amazingly intricate and contain musings on the existence of man. Many of Guðjón’s works are based on various clues, symbols and quotes which the viewer senses and understands and this was poignantly visible in Teikn.”
The recipient of the Motivational Award 2020 is Claire Paugam (b. 1991) an ambitious and powerful contribution to art this year. Claire is a French artist who has lived in Iceland for years. She graduated from Beaux-Art de Nantes Métropole in 2014, finished her Master’s degree from Iceland University of the Arts in 2016, and has since then been very active on the art scene in Iceland and in France.
Claire usually deals with art and other diverse projects in the field of exhibition management, stage design, music videos, poems and text works. This includes the solo exhibition Pouring Inside in Flæði which was an off-venue event of the art festival Sequences IX, and Versatile Uprising, an interactive installation in Wind and Weather Window Gallery with Raphaël Alexandre.
Claire’s work has a strong personal aesthetic and the jury considers her artistic vision clear and interesting, she is a generous and powerful artist.
