Over 20 years ago, two talented young artists were awarded the Baloise Art Prize for the first time. Since then, two artists have been honored each year at Art Basel by an international jury of experts. They each receive 30,000 Swiss francs. In addition, Baloise acquires works of art by the prize winners and donates them to two important European museums; currently the MUDAM (Musée d'Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean) in Luxembourg and the Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum für Gegenwart in Berlin.
In 2020, the pandemic made it impossible to ceremoniously present the works of the 2019 laureate, Xinyi Cheng, to the museum. For this reason, the works of two artists were officially presented at the beginning of the week: Xinyi Cheng and cameron clayborn, who received the Baloise Art Prize in 2021.
From left: Jürg Schiltknecht, CEO Basler Germany, Sven Beckstette, curator of both exhibitions, Xinyi Cheng, winner 2019, Thomas von Planta, Chairman Bâloise Holding AG, cameron clayborn, winner 2021 and Gabriele Knapstein, Director Hamburger Bahnhof.
Xinyi Cheng was awarded for her portrait painting, which captivates with a refined combination and coloring. Cheng's painting is always representation and fantasy at the same time. In 2020, the award winner was able to present her works in the exhibition "The Horse with Eye Blinders" at Berlin's Museum für Gegenwart, which was temporarily closed due to the pandemic.
Cameron Clayborn's first solo exhibition in Europe, "nothing left to be", features, among other works, the two sculptures from the "homegrown" series that are being donated by Baloise to the Museum für Gegenwart in Berlin. The texture as well as the surface move visitors to take a closer look at the works. The interplay of distance and proximity, massiveness and fragility, physicality and abstraction characterizes Clayborn's sculptural works. His works are on view at Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum für Gegenwart in Berlin until January 22, 2023.