17° Drawing Prize
Daniel & Florence Guerlain
Contemporary Art Foundation

This year the names of the 3 artists for the 17th Drawing Prize were announced on the 11th of December 2023 at 6pm.

The artists are

Lamia Joreige, Lebanese born in 1972
Amir Nave, Israeli artist born in 1974
Christos Venetis, Greek born in 1967

The jury met on March 21 at the Salon du Dessin

At the end of this meeting, the members of the Jury awarded the 17th drawing prize to Amir Nave

Works by the selected artists will be exhibited there from the 20th to the 25th of March 2024.   



    announcement  video           2024 drawing prize booklet 

Last year, your Prize focused on artists inspired by Art Brut or the Outsider Art movement. Did that bring you a fresh perspective to drawing ?

The selection reinforced our opinion that this medium is the genesis of all works of art and all creative production. It’s the language and, occasionally, the principal means of expression of the artists whom we have chosen, bearing witness to a particularly heightened sensibility. Yet we did not pursue this direction, for our desire is not to collect a specific genre, whatever it may be. Art Brut plunges one into a separate universe and requires complete immersion. Thus after this very enriching experience, we resumed our research into all types of artists.


Could you thus introduce us to this year’s three nominees : Lamia Joreige, Amir Nave and Christos Venetis ? 

We met Lamia Joreige in Lebanon several years ago and have continued to follow her work. What appeals to us is the beauty of her drawing, combined with the writings and history of her country, using highly interesting mental gymnastics.

Amir Nave immediately charmed us with a form, not of violence, but an affirmation of a very personal universe. His vivid colours go hand in hand with assertive lines and limitless fine strokes on the paper. As for Christos Venetis, his drawings inside the covers of books with ripped-out pages moved us deeply. Reminding us of the book burnings during the Second World War, their meticulous finish forms a contrast with their damaged backing.




Whether metaphorically or more directly, these artists talk about history, or even geopolitics. Was this mere coïncidence or a deliberate choice ?

Given the time in which we are living, perhaps there is a link, but, before anything else, we were extremely aware of the historical factors emanating from these works. The three countries in which these artists live, Lebanon, Israel and Greece, date back to the origins and speak of our humanity in general.


Furthermore, a part of your donation to the Centre Pompidou can be seen in a room now named after you. The hanging revolves around humour…

Yes, for at the present time this theme seems indispensable… and follows on from that of the body, before we approach abstract art from October 2024 onwards.

We have also been invited by the Musée de l’Hospice Saint-Roch, in Issoudun, to a retrospective exhibition on our entire history as collectors, from the 1980s to the

present, which will be on view there during the summer of 2024.



         Interview Marie Maertens

Selected Artists

17° Drawing Prize Daniel & Florence Guerlain Contemporary Art Foundation

Lamia Joreige

Lamia Joreige was born in Lebanon in 1972. She graduated from the École supérieure d’arts graphiques, Paris, and the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, USA. Since the late 1990s, she has exhibited in numerous international galleries and museums and taken part in multiple bienniales, namely those in Istanbul (2022), Liverpool (2018), Sharjah (2017) and Venice (2006). Her works are now in the collections of the Mnam-Centre Pompidou (Paris), the Tate Modern (London), the Sharjah Art Foundation (UAE), the Saradar Collection (Beirut), the Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art (Doha), the Frac Bretagne (Rennes) and Florence and Daniel Guerlain. She is co-founder of the Beirut Art Center and is represented by the Marfa’ Projects gallery (Beirut).


Oeuvres

Amir Nave

Amir Nave was born in Israel in 1974. A selftaught artist, his works have been exhibited at the Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art, the Ramat Gan Museum of Israeli Art, the Mishkan Museum of Art (Ein Harod), the Baekong Museum (Ulsan, South Korea), the Gallery of the Memorial Center (Kiryat Tiv’on), the Tel Aviv Museum of Art and the Sommer ContemporaryArt (Tel Aviv). In 2013, he was awarded the Osias Hofstatter Prize from the Ashdod Museum of Art and, in 2012, the Mifal Hapais Prize from the Janco-Dada Museum (Ein Hod). His works are now in the collections of the Israel Museum (Jerusalem), the Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art, the Ashdod Museum of Art, the Mishkan Museum of Art, the Artis Foundation (Israel/New York), the Tank Shanghai (China) and Florence and Daniel Guerlain.

He is represented by the Galerie In Situ- Fabienne Leclerc (Paris), the Chelouch Contemporary Art Gallery (Israel) and the Shin Gallery (New York).


Oeuvres

Christos Venetis

Christos Venetis was born in Greece in 1967. He graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts (specialising in visual and applied arts) at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He has exhibited at the Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art (Thessaloniki), the IRIS Cultural Center (Stavroupoli), the Jewish Museum(Thessaloniki), the Cultural Center (Limassol) and the Biennial of Young Artists from Europe and the Mediterranean, organised by ARCI Kids (Italy). His works are now in the collections of Florence and Daniel Guerlain and Rudolf Zwirner. He is represented by the Galerie Martin Kudlek (Cologne and Brussels).


Oeuvres