Art Basel and BMW are delighted to present the next artist shortlist and to continue their joint initiative to recognize and support emerging artists worldwide. Today, an international expert jury announced A.K. Burns, Jamal Cyrus and Mariela Scafati as the shortlisted artists showing in Positions, the sector for emerging artists at Art Basel's show in Miami Beach and who are now invited to develop a proposal for their ideal journey. The winner will be announced in early 2018.
A.K. Burns, at Callicoon Fine Arts, New York, lives and works in Brooklyn, United States. In her artistic practice, Burns views the body as a contentious domain in which issues of gender, labor, ecology and sexuality are negotiated. At Art Basel in Miami Beach, she premiers Weather Report, an installation that calls forth a dystopian domestic scene, a kind of allegorical space weathered by the current political situation, vexing barriers between the interior and exterior.
Jamal Cyrus, at Inman Gallery, Houston, was born in Houston, United States, where he still lives and works. Cyrus’ work draws on the languages of collage, assemblage, and the cultural politics embedded within Black American music and culture. At this year’s Art Basel in Miami Beach, Cyrus is presenting STANDARDZENBLŪZ II, a project whose imagery is sampled from concert posters, record covers, Jet Magazine, and the interior of a record store in Tokyo.
Mariela Scafati, at Isla Flotante, Buenos Aires, was born in Olivos near Buenos Aires, and still lives and works in Buenos Aires, Argentina. In her artistic practice, she pays attention to the relationship between activism and pictorial manifestations. At this year’s Art Basel in Miami Beach show, Scafati is presenting an installation that confirms and eschews the notion of paintings as self-contained entities.
The members of the expert jury in Miami Beach are Massimiliano Gioni, Artistic Director New Museum, New York City; Gabi Ngcobo, Curator Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art, Berlin; Victoria Noorthoorn, Director, Museo de Arte Moderno, Buenos Aires; Philipp Tinari, Director, Ullens Centre for Contemporary Art, Beijing; and Susanne Pfeffer, Director, Museum Fridericianium, Kassel
In collaboration with the winning artist, the journey will be documented and shared with the public through publications, online and social media.