Artist Danh Vo Wins Hugo Boss Prize 2012

NEW YORK, NY - -- The Hugo Boss Prize 2012 has been awarded to Danh Vo, announced Richard Armstrong, Director, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation, and Claus-Dietrich Lahrs, Chairman and CEO, HUGO BOSS AG. Vo is the ninth artist to receive the biennial honor that was established in 1996 to recognize significant achievement in contemporary art. The prize carries an award of $100,000 and is administered by the Guggenheim Foundation. An exhibition of Vo’s work will be on view at the Guggenheim Museum in spring 2013.

Danh Vo (b. 1975, Bà Ria, Vietnam) was selected from a group of six finalists, which included Trisha Donnelly, Rashid Johnson, Qiu Zhijie, Monika Sosnowska, and Tris Vonna-Michell. The distinguished international jury for the Hugo Boss Prize 2012 was chaired by Nancy Spector, Deputy Director and Chief Curator, Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, and included Magali Arriola, Curator, Coleccion Jumex, Ecatepec de Morelos, Mexico; Suzanne Cotter, Curator, Abu Dhabi Project, Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation; Kate Fowle, Executive Director, Independent Curators International, New York; Nat Trotman, Associate Curator, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; and Theodora Vischer, Senior Curator at Large, Fondation Beyeler, Basel.

“We have chosen to award the Hugo Boss Prize 2012 to Danh Vo in recognition of the vivid and influential impact he has made on the currents of contemporary art making,” the jury said in describing its selection. “Vo’s assured and subtle work expresses a number of urgent concerns related to cultural identity, politics, and history, evoking these themes through shifting, poetic forms that traverse time and geography. This year’s Hugo Boss Prize shortlist represented an exceptionally accomplished group of artists, and we wish to commend all six of the nominees for the strength and originality of their practices.”

Hugo Boss Prize History
This year marks the ninth presentation of the Hugo Boss Prize at the Guggenheim Museum. Since its inception in 1996, it has been awarded to American artist Matthew Barney (1996), Scottish artist Douglas Gordon (1998), Slovenian artist Marjetica Potrc (2000), French artist Pierre Huyghe (2002), Thai artist Rirkrit Tiravanija (2004), British artist Tacita Dean (2006), Palestinian artist Emily Jacir (2008), and German artist Hans-Peter Feldmann (2010). Previous finalists have included Laurie Anderson, Janine Antoni, Cai Guo-Qiang, Stan Douglas, and Yasumasa Morimura in 1996; Huang Yong Ping, William Kentridge, Lee Bul, Pipilotti Rist, and Lorna Simpson in 1998; Vito Acconci, Maurizio Cattelan, Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset, Tom Friedman, Barry Le Va, and Tunga in 2000; Francis Alÿs, Olafur Eliasson, Hachiya Kazuhiko, Koo Jeong-a, and Anri Sala in 2002; Franz Ackermann, Rivane Neuenschwander, Jeroen de Rijke and Willem de Rooij, Simon Starling, and Yang Fudong in 2004; Allora & Calzadilla, John Bock, Damián Ortega, Aïda Ruilova, and Tino Sehgal in 2006; Christoph Büchel, Patty Chang, Sam Durant, Joachim Koester, and Roman Signer in 2008; and Cao Fei, Roman Ondák, Walid Raad, Natascha Sadr Haghighian, and Apichatpong Weerasethakul in 2010.

Publication
In conjunction with the Hugo Boss Prize 2012, the Guggenheim has published a catalogue that features projects by each of the finalists, as well as specially commissioned essays offering critical overviews of their practices. The catalogue, designed by London-based designer Sara De Bondt, includes texts by Suzanne Cotter, Dominic Eichler, Kate Fowle, Beatrix Ruf, Adam Szymczyk, and Julie Rodrigues Widholm, with an introduction by Katherine Brinson, Associate Curator, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. It is available for $19.95 at the Guggenheim Store, or online at guggenheimstore.org.

About HUGO BOSS AG
Since 1995 HUGO BOSS has provided critical support to many Guggenheim programs. In addition to the Hugo Boss Prize, the company has helped make possible retrospectives of the work of Matthew Barney (2003), Georg Baselitz (1995), Ross Bleckner (1995), Francesco Clemente (1999-2000), Ellsworth Kelly (1996-97), Robert Rauschenberg (1997-98), and James Rosenquist (2003-04); the presentation Art in America: Now (2007) in Shanghai; the Felix Gonzalez-Torres (2007) and Ed Ruscha (2005) exhibitions in the U.S. Pavilion of the Venice Biennale; and the exhibition theanyspacewhatever (2008-09) at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. At the 54th Biennale di Venezia in 2011, the fashion and lifestyle group HUGO BOSS was the lead sponsor of the Allora & Calzadilla exhibition in the U.S. Pavilion. For more information about the prize, visit hugoboss.com/hugobossprize.

About the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation
Founded in 1937, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation is dedicated to promoting the understanding and appreciation of art, primarily of the modern and contemporary periods, through exhibitions, education programs, research initiatives, and publications. The global network that began in the 1970s when the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, was joined by the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, has expanded to include the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao (opened 1997), the Deutsche Guggenheim in Berlin (1997–2013), and the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi (currently underdevelopment). Looking to the future, the Guggenheim Foundation continues to forge international collaborations that take contemporary art, architecture, and design beyond the walls of the museum. More information about the foundation can be found at guggenheim.org.

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