Its been half-a-year since the Opening Champagne Reception for ArtVenice Biennale 3. We, The Biennial Project only just realized that we haven’t told you, our loyal supporters, about our time in Venice. Well, in case you were wondering, ArtVenice Biennale 3 was an astonishing success! The location on VIA GARIBALDI was better then imagined. Every big gun in the art world meandered up and down this street looking for dinner and then found us or maybe they were looking for us and then found dinner. The art work being exhibited digitally drew the best glitterati into our gallery.  The attendees got the must have Biennial Project bag, a free glass(or two, or three, or four…) of prosecco  and then stayed to admire all the art that was on view. We met hundreds of art loving hoi polloi from all over the world, ideas were exchanges, connections were made and maybe one or two people found romance. An immense triumph!!

The evening started off with The Live Art Performance by The Biennial Project’s ArtVenice Biennale 3 Artist in Residence, Tom Estes called ‘'Parallax: Other Realms’. We were thrilled, with the help of the entrants on AVB3, to give this artist from London an opportunity and a venue to express his creativity. The performance coincided with Estes' time at the newly founded The Biennial Project Residency Project at the V70 building in Venice.

Yvonne Amolo gave an enthralling and capitvating talk, presented a video and even yodeled for us.  Yvonne Amolo, the only actual ethnic Kenyan in this Kenyan pavilion  has won awards for her film about racism. Being the only ethnic Kenyan representing Kenya in this year’s Biennale was the hottest topic of conversation during the Opening week of The 56th Venice Biennale. This very issue that sparked the debate on the socio economic and nationalistic issues involved in the process of putting together an evenly and fairly represented global art exhibit.Yvonne was kind enough to take a lot of questions from our attendees regarding this hot button issue.

We also had a stimulating and spurring performance from Leslie Rogers brought to life 'Wesley Wodgers: Camera Cop'

Leslie Rogers performs 'Wesley Wodgers: Camera Cop':

https://youtu.be/w0KA3_0SEbQ

Though, clearly, the highlight of the show was seeing all our entrant's images shown in a digital display that ran for the entire reception. Many of the ArtVenice Biennale 3chosen artists came to Venice to attend the gala and many of them spoke about their work. Some of these included Artemis Herber, Finishing School, James Lipovac, Justin Augspurg, Katherine Sweetman, Lauren Gidwitz, Markus Blaus, Matthew Keller, Rebecca Potter,Victor Salvo, Walter Kopec and Zebbler Peter Berdovsky and a few others.

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300 ans d'errance by Christine Comeau

The ArtVenice Biennale 3 attracted an extraordinary amount of exceptionally strong art from artists from every corner of the world.

Feast your eyes on all the superlative work included in the show:

ArtVenice Biennale 3 Selected Artists

Jurying such strong work was extremely satisfying but difficult. Even more challenging was picking the winners from so much excellent work. We say all of these artists deserve prizes!

Fortunately we had the support of our illustrious group of international jurors – one chosen from each of the continents – to help us with this.

Each of these successful artists poured over all the accepted art and spent a lot of time picking their winners. As artists themselves, they took this process very seriously, and we are proud to announce their decisions:

Sui Jianguo (Asia), internationally acclaimed Chinese sculptor, represented by Pace Gallery.  pacegallery.com/artists/459/sui-jianguo

“I have reviewed all the works in the collection several times. My second choice goes to artist Szilvia Gyorgy.

My final pick goes to Hubert Dobler.  I mostly appreciate his work for combining the elements of body, space, video and other objects, with an underlying imagination, to express unique and regional characteristics, with cultural spirit, romantic yet concrete."

Marlene Sarroff (Australia) well-known artist, critic and gallerist. marlenesarroff.com

“What a fantastic line up of entries. I have chosen these two favorites:

1.  Tamara Van San. Very impressed by the organic nature of the work, the incredible play and freedom, within what sometimes is thought to be quite a rigid medium. The successful spatial arrangements of the works come together to make a most exciting installation.

2. Hubert Dobler. The marks are powerful. The suggestion of some quite aggressive action having taken place. The  unrestrained abandonment that disrupts the pristine space like a juvenile crime scene. Very masculine and youthful, but at the same time the marks have a mesmerising attraction that exudes rhythm, and movement."

Francisco Bassim (South America) 2011 Venezuela Representative to the  Venice  Biennale.  facebook.com/bassimarte

“I have chosen the work of Rachel Shatil, because it feels to me warm-hearted and it breaks with formality. It is like the summation of many things in few words; it captures a wonderful moment, causing this simple and wild image to hold all the humanity possible in an inanimate object.”

Zsolt Asztalos (Europe) 2013 Hungary Representative to the Venice Biennale, as well as a member of The 2015 Biennial Project Venice Biennale Entourage.   asztaloszsolt.com

“I choose Moira Agius. In her work the material and the inmaterial world come together in the same time. We can realise how the everyday life melts into transcendence. The artist demands the viewers to contemplate and to complete their deep absorption.”

Aissa Deebi (Africa) 2013 Palestinian Representative to the Venice Biennale and co-curator of the Palestinian Pavilion. aissadeebi.com

“This is my selection. Christine Comeau’s performance work, that has a social practice aspect. She is dealing with issues of exile, displacement and nomadism. I think her work is outstanding and she deserves to be selected for the award.”

Ian Boissonnault (North American) –  Artist and gallerist  on staff at Art New England.  facebook.com/i.boissonnault

"The Ian Boissonnault Biennial Project Its About Us North American Great Justice Primary Number One Prize goes to Christine Comeau  for her Cone People. We all wanted to know so much more about this piece, we were really drawn in, and the people involved for the most part looked like they were into the fact that they were in big conical orange outfits on carts. was it a part of a video? or a performance? the image haunted us for days in a good Patrick Swayze way. TELL US MORE.”

In addition to the work thoughtfully chosen by our esteemed international jurors, We The Biennial Project are proud to announce the following additional winners: Dara Lorenzo, Graehound,  Hildy Maze, Justin Augspurg, Megan Michalak, Paul Weiner, Svetlana Swinimer, Vladimira Sedlakova, and Walter Kopec.

Check out all the winning work:

AVB WINNERS SLIDESHOW

And it’s probably clear by now, but the AVB3 Grand Prize Triple Platinum Super Winners Best in Show Awards must go to Hubert Dobler and Christine Comeau for being the fav’s of so many.

More on both of them to come!

GASOLINE 2 by Hubert Dobler

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