The jury is in, and the shortlisted finalists in the Blooom Award by Warsteiner art competition have been announced. More than 1200 hopefuls put their work forward for consideration, but the five member panel – Olaf Heine (photographer), Robert Kaltenhäuser (author and curator), Catharina Kramer (patron and Warsteiner proprietor), Yasha Young (museum director and journalist) and Walter Gehlen (Art.Fair art director) – have whittled the submissions down to their ten favourites. The chosen few will now have the chance to exhibit their work at a special show from October 24 to 27 at Blooom – the converging art show in Cologne before the overall winner in selected. The champion will scoop a prestigious title, a one-year mentoring program, a trip to Art Basel Miami Beach and €1500 prize money.
There’s a full list of finalists at the end of this article, and although We Heart may not be on the jury, we’ve picked out a couple of our favourites for special mention before the panel reconvene to make their final pick. Just because we can. Stephanie Lüning’s Schauminsel is a wonderfully messy affair, using a foam machine connected to differently coloured water tanks to create her island of foam. The island fades away and is periodically renewed, allowing visitors to see the process in action. Belgian photographer Antoine Rose takes us in a different direction, offering a rare bird’s-eye-view of The Beach. Rose had the idea for his Up in the Air series while shooting a kite-surfing competition in Brazil, hanging out of door-less helicopters at 300ft to grab the perfect shot.
We wish the best of luck to all the finalists…
The Blooom Award by Warsteiner shortlisted finalists are: Johann Büsen with Multiverse (Germany), Adam Chmiel with barrier ahead (Czech Republic), Samira Elagoz with Four Kings (The Netherlands), Louise Gibson with The elephant in the room (Germany), Manaf Halbouni with Entwurzelt (Germany), Frenzy Höhne with Denkmal (Germany), Yi Zheng Lin with Septembersehnen (Germany), Stephanie Lüning with Schauminsel (Germany), Cristiano Panepuccia and Antonella Mignone with Single # Double # Triple (Italy), Antoine Rose with The Beach (Belgium).
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