Introducing Dineo Seshee Bopape, the winner of the Future Generation Art Prize 2017, the jury stated: “Some unexpected vegetation has been sprouting through the course of this show, a testament to the remarkable fertility of the rich black Ukrainian soil that has been arranged into a landscape and a platform for the raw and the cooked. This soft black plateau is a stage for the hand - digging in labour; open in a gesture of giving; or clenched as a fist of protest - transformed from clay into a ceramic hand-cast.
Exploring this ‘land art’ installed at the top of this gallery, we discover minerals, crystals and ash extracted from the earth or arranged in ritualistic forms. We see voids lined with gold leaf. Each material or object is a metaphor for the land and for landlessness; for wealth and impoverishment; for new life and for mourning. Fronds of burnt herbs and crystals act as agents of healing and purification; and we are immersed in the sonic environment of the sea.
For her formally inventive and politically symbolic sculpture, the 2017 Future Generation Art Prize is awarded to Dineo Seshee Bopape.”

Commenting on works by the Special Prize winners Phoebe Boswell the jury said: “In this exhibition we encounter a corridor of virtuoso life drawings, female figures, animated on an epic scale. These naked yet heroic protagonists have stories to tell and they are activated by our presence - we are also invited to contribute our own thoughts and statements. In recognition of the immersive and emotionally charged power of the installation titled Mutumia, a special prize is awarded to Phoebe Boswell.”

Commenting the Future Generation Art Prize 2017, the Jury said:
“This edition of the Future Generation Art Prize reveals a generation of artists who draw on social and cultural histories - and systems, to create works of great emotional and conceptual affect. Their work reflects the heterogeneity of our visual world and the political structures that shape it, yet is also grounded in the body or the land. They celebrate forms of knowledge that may be philosophical or atavistic; yet they translate their research into immersive works that have a powerful immediacy.
The Jury was impressed by the quality of installations every artist created for this exhibition, the global span contributed by the nominating organisations and the curatorial verve of the PinchukArtCentre team in realising all the artists’ visions.”

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