In an unusually large commitment to the support of individual artists, the FLAG Art Foundation in New York and Serpentine in London have established a new prize that will be awarded every two years and will equally distribute 1 a million British pounds among five artists (£200,000 each). This would be “the largest contemporary art prize in the U.K.,” the organizations said on Monday.
“FLAG has built a brand around the contemporary artist space working with artists, collectors, institutions, fostering dialogue,” the founder of FLAG, Glenn Fuhrman, said in a joint video interview. “This is a continuation of that.”
Bettina Korek, the chief executive of Serpentine, added: “This partnership allows us to support artist practice on both sides of the Atlantic. When we work together with other organizations, we can create more impact.”
Each recipient of this new honor, called the Serpentine x FLAG Art Foundation Prize, will be invited to stage a solo exhibition presented jointly by the two galleries, in part to encourage collaboration between the United States and Britain.
The first artist to be awarded funds will be selected in 2026, with the inaugural exhibition to open at Serpentine in fall 2027, after which it will be reconfigured for FLAG in spring 2028. Each exhibition will be accompanied by a catalog and live program, developed and produced by both institutions.
To be eligible, artists — of any age from any region — must have exhibited professionally for less than 10 years and be “actively working to grow and sustain a strong record of international museum and gallery exhibitions, including gallery representation, honors, awards, art critic reviews, grants and publications,” the prize announcement said.
Artists will be considered through a nomination process and selected by a rotating jury of curators, art historians and artists.
The award is the second established by FLAG, after the Suzanne Deal Booth / FLAG Art Foundation Prize, organized in 2018 with the Contemporary Austin museum in Texas.
Although Fuhrman is a major collector, he said these prizes — along with the occasional salon dinners FLAG has been convening for people who apply to attend through the foundation’s Instagram page — are an effort to foster exchange and discussion among various parts of the art world.
“There has been an evolution over the last 35 years from building a personal collection to building an institution,” Fuhrman said. “It’s not about my collection — when you go to FLAG, you are likely to see very little from my collection.”
“It has become about being able to work with artists and put on exhibitions,” he added. “What everybody can love about art doesn’t have to be about buying.”
Robin Pogrebin, who has been a reporter for The Times for 30 years, covers arts and culture.
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