Pak Sheung Chuen Wins Best Artist at the 2012 Chinese Contemporary Art Awards
by Elizabeth Leigh, BLOUIN ARTINFO Hong Kong
Published: November 10, 2012
Hong Kong artist Pak Sheung Chuen won the Best Artist award at the 2012 Chinese Contemporary Art Awards (CCAA). The winners were announced this week at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. Founded in 1997 by Swiss collector Uli Sigg, the CCAA are awarded annually to Chinese artists and art critics who show outstanding achievement in artistic creation and critique.
Pak Sheung Chuen was chosen out of 45 nominees by seven jury members, including Uli Sigg, Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, Chris Dercon, Feng Boyi, Huang Zhuan, Li Zhenhua and Lars Nittve.
"[Pak Sheung Chuen's] art is almost invisible, almost impossible to document, but manages to explore the human condition in all its complexities and with loving precision," said Nittve, director of the M+ museum in Hong Kong. "He produces work that, against all odds, is recognizable as art."
The simultaneously contemplative and playful nature of his work, which has no specific medium, is exemplified in pieces such as his 2005 "To share a watermelon with an unknown person." Pak buys half a watermelon from a supermarket and eats it in his own home, while considering the question of where the other half of the watermelon ended up and who is the anonymous person "sharing" his watermelon.
Two other Chinese artists were awarded by the CCAA this year. The Best Young Artist award went to Yan Xing, and the Lifetime Contribution award to Geng Jianyi.
Pak Sheung Chuen presented by Vitamin Creative Space also won The Frieze London 2012 stand prize in October. Follow news of Pak on his blog pakpark.blogspot.hk.
