Hafiz Osman Wins Art Award

I would like to congratulate Hafiz Osman, my brother-in-law, on winning the Winston Oh Art Award.

As long-term readers of my blog will know, Hafiz Osman is a Singaporean contemporary artist with a gift for the abstract, who works in many media, from painting, through to sculpture - and even interior design/furniture. Hafiz makes his living as an artist, which is unusual in a Singapore context, since this is a land built on finance and trade: it is not, yet, a bastion of the arts (though, who knows, it one day might be, if the Government has its way, in building a vital culture, here).

The Winston Oh Art Award is conferred on a Singaporean artist to allow them to travel to an international Art Biennal, giving them the opportunity to participate, promote their work, build a career - and learn from the experience. It is refreshing that there should be such an enabling award for Singaporean artists - for without such support it is difficult for artists who have not yet made an international name for themselves, to build their careers. It is a good step in the right direction, that Singaporeans should have initiated and supported such an award. There are other art awards in Singapore - and I am happy to see this trend: it promises a better future for local artists - and, that in turn promises a better future for Singapore. Consider this: what better advertisement could there be for Singapore than to have the art of a Singaporean on the walls of tens of thousands of homes of influential people around the world? Such artistic success greatly bolsters the impression of creative power that a country leaves on others. Few local artists have managed to build an international career - but should this change, and local artists, become international ones, it can only be good for Singapore's overseas reputation - as well as, of course, allowing the artist to focus more on their work and life, without so much financial struggle (which is an inevitable part of every artist's career - in the early stages, at least.)

The Winston Oh Art Award will cover Hafiz Osman's travel costs to the International Biennial of Contemporary Art, 2007, in Istanbul. There he will participate in Real Presence - Floating Sites, 2007. This is a parallel project within the Biennial in both Istanbul and Belgrade. Hafiz had received an invitation to both Belgrade and Istanbul, but circumstances dictate that he should attend Istanbul, alone. Nevertheless, this will be a great opportunity for him to raise the profile of his work, overseas, to engage with other artistic minds and forge alliances with other artists that may, in time, lead to collaborative enterprises. (The latter is one of the intentions of the art project.)

Real Presence - Floating Sites is described as a workshop at which international art academies will give presentations of art works and hold a conference; individuals will present their works and give performances; artistic talks and discussions will be held - and, interestingly, in which works, installations and projects will be realized "in situ".

The number of Art academies and Institutions involved is phenomenal - and the list that follows, for the sake of information, is incomplete, for at the time of the invitation, not all participants had been finalized. At the very least however, the following renowned art academies and institutions will be in attendance:

ALBANIA > ACADEMY OF FINE ARTS, TIRANA > Selector on-call Edi Muka, video presentation > Prof.: Edi Hila, Edi Muka, Gezim Qendro
AUSTRIA > Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna > Rector: Stephan Schmidt-Wulffen, Professors: Heimo Zobering, Peter Kogler, Eva Schlegel …
University of Applied Arts, Vienna, Visual Media, Prof. Peter Weibel
BULGARIA > Academy of Fine Art, Sofia > Prof. Assistant Pravdoliub Ivanov
CROATIA > Academy of Fine Art, Zagreb
GERMANY > Staatliche Hochschule Für Bildende Künste, Frankfurt > Rector Daniel Birnbaum, Professors: Ajse Erkmen, Tobias Rehberger
Kunstakademie Berlin, Prof. Katharina Sieverding
Kunstacademie, Dusseldorf> Professors: Helmut Federle, Jannis Kounellis, Klaus Rinke, Georg Heoxl
Academy Of Fine Art, Braunschweig > Prof. John Bock
Academy of Fine Art, Munchen > Prof. Olaf Metzel
FINLAND > Academy of Fine Arts Helsinki, Prof. Seppo Salminen
BOSNIA > Academy of Fine Art, Sarajevo> Prof. Radoslav Tadić
BULGARIA > Academy of Fine Art, Sofia > Prof. Andrej Daniel, Prof. Assistant Pravdoliub Ivanov
CZECH REPUBLIC > Akademie Vytvarnych Umeni, Prag
DENMARK > Royal Danish Academy of Fine Art, COPENHAGEN > Professor: Frans Jacobi >
ESTONIA > Academy of Fine Art, Tallinn > E+Media Centre, Professor: Mare Emmott Tralla >
FRANCE > Academy ofFine Art > Prof. Richard Deacon
HOLLAND > Dutch Art Institute - AKI 2 – Enschede > Director MA Hendriekje Bosma
HUNGARY > Academy of Fine Art, Budapest > Prof: Eszter Lazar
ICELAND > Academy Fine Art, Reikyevik > Selector: Ósk Vilhjálmsdóttir, Living Art Museum
IRELAND > University of Ulster, School of Art ahd Design, Belfast > Hilary Robinson
ITALY > IUAV prof. Angela Vettese, Prof. Giulio Alessandri
Accademia Delle Belle Arti Brera, Milano > Prof. Alberto Garutti, Paolo Gallerani >
MACEDONIA > Academy of Fine Arts, Skoplje > Prof. Stanko Pavleski
NORWAY > Statens Kunstakademi, Oslo
POLAND > AKADEMIA SZTUK PIEKNYCH - Academy Fine Art Warschau, Selector Hanna Wroblewska
PORTUGAL >Escola de Artes Visuals, Lissabon > Prof. Jürgen Bock
ROMANIA > Universitatea De Arte Din Bucuresti > Professors: Roxana Trestioreany, Iosif Kiraly
SINGAPUR (SINGAPORE) > Lasalle-Sia College of The Arts > Dean: Milenko Pravacki
SLOVENIA > Academy of Fine Arts, Ljubljana > Prof. Sračo Dragan
SOUTH AFRIKA > Technikon Pretoria-Postcolonial Studies > Prof. Johan Thom
SERBIA > Academy of Fine Arts, Belgrade > Prof. Mrđan Bajić
Academy of Fine Arts, Novi Sad > Dean: Nenad Ostojić
MONTENEGRO, Academy of Fine Arts, Cetinje > Dean: Pavle Pejović
SWEDEN > Umeå Art Acade my, Profesor: Cecilia Parsberg
SWITZERLAND > Hochchule fur Gestaltung Kunst, Zurich > Professors: Cristoph Schenker, Peter Emch,
UNITED KINGDOM > Metropolitan University London, Audio Visual Production, Prof. Yossi Balanescu
Chelsea Art School, London

As you can see, therefore, this is a truly exciting opportunity for Hafiz Osman, one of Singapore's young "up-and-coming" artists, to show his work and interact with artists and art academics from around the world.

Hafiz Osman was trained at La Salle-SIA College of the Arts, here in Singapore, where he obtained his Bachelor's in Fine Arts. He has held several exhibitions, here in Singapore - and even in Europe. He is presently studying for his Master's in Fine Arts at La Salle-SIA College of the Arts, while simultaneously lecturing there, to support himself.

I wish him luck on his trip to Istanbul as a representative of Singaporean art.

Real Presence - Floating Sites at the International Biennial of Contemporary Art, 2007, in Istanbul, will run from the 3rd September 2007 to the 10th September, 2007.

The Winston Oh Art Award is named after Winston Oh, a Singaporean artist, born in 1941, who, lives and works in Essex, England, now. His speciality is watercolours and he has worked in many countries.

(If you would like to read more of Hafiz Osman, or Ainan Celeste Cawley, his nephew, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and eight months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and one month, and Tiarnan, eighteen months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, genetics, left-handedness, College, University, Chemistry, Science, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, the creatively gifted, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)