PIPA Prize 2023

It is with great delight that the PIPA Institute announces the launch of PIPA Prize 2023. For more than 13 years fulfilling its mission to promote and support Brazilian art and its visual artists, the Prize has become a reference in contemporary national art. Beyond the award itself, PIPA also works as a platform for dissemination through its publications, websites, social networks and podcast, gathering exclusive content which makes up a rich research source.

More than a decade since the creation of the Prize, we maintain its essence, while understanding that the art scene in the country is alive, what demands a careful observation to adapting to new formats and need of the medium. We keep in mind that Brazil has several regional artistic micro-scenes, and we are interested in affirming them in their diversity.

Important names of Brazilian art have passed through the Prize, whose work has gained relevant international prominence. The winners, here highlighted, are: Renata Lucas (2010), Tatiana Blass (2011), Marcius Galan (2012),  Cadu (2013),  Alice Miceli (2014), Virginia de Medeiros (2015), Paulo Nazareth (2016), Bárbara Wagner (2017), Arjan Martins (2018) and Guerreiro do Divino Amor (2019). In the edition of 2020, the four winners were Gê Viana, Maxwell Alexandre, Randolpho Lamonier and Renata Felinto. In 2021, the five chosen artists were Castiel Vitorino Brasileiro, Denilson Baniwa, Ilê Sartuzi, Marcela Bonfim and Ventura Profana. In 2022, we had once again four awarded artists, Coletivo Coletores, Josi, Vitória Cribb and UÝRA.

The fourteenth edition of PIPA Prize maintains the format established in 2022 of focusing on a more recent production and creating a stronger bond between the Institute and the Prize:

• As in 2021, the profile of the nominated artist is one with a recent career. We ask each member of the Nominating Committee to appoint three artists who have up to 15 years from their first exhibition (solo or group).
• This year there will be, once again, four PIPA Awarded Artists. The PIPA Prize Board will choose four artists among the ones participating in PIPA Prize 2023 to be the winners of this fourteenth edition.
• Each Awarded Artist will receive a donation of R$20.000 (twenty thousand Reais).
• The four artists will take part in an in-person exhibition to be held at Paço Imperial, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, between September and November 2023.
• In addition to the in-person show, the Awarded Artists will participate in an online exhibition/virtual takeover on the Prize’s websites and social media. Also held in the last three editions, the virtual exhibition is yet another way, which has proved to be very efficient, for greater dissemination of the artists’ work. It also makes it possible for people from abroad to access the content, beyond the experience of the physical environment set up in Rio de Janeiro.

Check out images of the 2022 exhibition at Paço Imperial (photos by Fabio Souza, click to expand):

Concerning PIPA Online 2023, the category is still optional for all participants in this edition and the online voting system remains in two rounds. Just like in the previous years, in the first round people must vote for at least three artists. In the second round, the voter must choose only one among the artists that received more than 500 votes in the first round. Finally, PIPA Online 2023 rewards the two most voted artists, and each one will receive, at the end of the second round of voting, a donation of R$5.000 (five thousand reais). This virtual showcase, which seeks to be 100% democratic and decentralized, is specially relevant for the artists outside of the Rio-São Paulo area that are not represented by any gallery: through the voting, they find a way to mobilize people and, thus, to disseminate even more their work. It is important to highlight that robot votes or votes from invalid emails will be disregarded. Eugênia França and Samantha Canovas were the winners of PIPA Online 2022:

Since 2010, more than 580 artists have been part of the Prize. Several activities aimed at promoting the Brazilian artistic scene are developed throughout each year, offering a support that goes beyond donations made in the Prize’s main and online categories. Commissioning, acquisitions of works, promotion on PIPA’s websites and social networks, conversations in a podcast available on multiple platforms, exhibitions and the production of a printed catalog are among the initiatives organized. In addition, the participants have their profile pages on PIPA’s Portuguese and English websites, bringing together in a single space biography, works, video interviews and other content that together make up an important source of research for other artists, curators and scholars of contemporary art in Brazil. The making and displaying of this content work as a showcase for artists to promote their work, and reinforce PIPA’s intention to be the window into Brazilian contemporary art.

The PIPA Institute has been increasing its efforts of making acquisitions for the collection. The selection of artworks is made within the group of artists who have participated in at least one edition of the Prize, and based on the broad theme of “displacement”, aiming to present the plurality and diversity of the current Brazilian contemporary art. With this in mind, the Instituto purchased artworks from all the winners of the Prize’s 2022 edition.

As happened in the past couple of years, the PIPA Institute curator Luiz Camillo Osorio will make a selection of works among the recent acquisitions to be shown to the public in an exhibition happening simultaneously to the PIPA Prize 2023 one, which will take place at Paço Imperial, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from September to November this year.  Check out images of the Institute’s collection exhibition in 2022 (photos by Fabio Souza):

Check out the complete collection here. To see the most recent acquisitions, click here.

The nominees will be announced in bulletins from March 27 to 31st.

Keep following us on the Prize’s website and social media to stay up to date with the next steps in this edition, and to find out which artists will make up the group of participants.

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