Ana Santos is the winner of the 10th edition of the EDP Foundation New Artists Award, which recognises young talents in the visual arts. The artist was selected by an international jury who judged the works that the nine finalists of this edition, selected from a total of 567 applicants, present in an exhibition at the EDP Foundation Gallery in Porto and at Casa da Música until 23 March.
The jury – comprised of José Manuel dos Santos (cultural director of the EDP Foundation), Helen Legg (director of Spike Island, United Kingdom), Philippe Van Cauteren (artistic director of S.M.A.K. museum of contemporary art in Ghent, Belgium), Suzanne Cotter (director of the Serralves Museum) and Jorge Molder (artist and EDP Foundation Art Grand Prize winner in 2010) – distinguished “the coherence of her work, her instinctive use of space, the use of materials that create a visual and physical relationship with the observer. This artist’s work combines an evident frailty with an acute poetic sense and clear intent”.
THE ARTIST
Ana Santos (Espinho, 1982) studied Sculpture at the Faculty of Fine Arts, Porto University, and has a Master’s Degree in Contemporary Culture and New Technologies from Lisbon’s New University. She completed her individual project in Ar.Co and the Visual Arts course of the Artistic Creativity and Creation programme at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. She was awarded a Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation grant in 2010-2011 for an artist’s residency at the International Studio & Curatorial Program, in New York. Among the exhibitions in which she took part are: in 2013, Coleção de Serralves – Forma Conceptual e Ações Materiais, Serralves Museum, Porto; in 2012, Trabalho, Chiado8 Arte Contemporânea, Lisbon, and Primeira Avenida: Rua de Sentido Único, Serralves Museum, Porto; in 2011, Musicircus, Roullette, New York; in 2007, Open Studio – O Sítio das Artes, Modern Art Centre, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon; and in 2006, the 3rd edition of Anteciparte, Lisbon.
She works and lives in Lisbon.
The winning artist receives a cash prize of 11 500 euros that should be applied to further develop their studies or complete an artistic project.
Throughout the previous editions, the award distinguished artists who are now recognised and included in the latest national and international art scenes, namely Joana Vasconcelos (2000), Leonor Antunes (2001), Vasco Araújo (2002), Carlos Bunga (2003), João Maria Gusmão and Pedro Paiva (2004), João Leonardo (2005), André Romão (2007), Gabriel Abrantes (2009) and Priscila Fernandes (2011).
