LONDON.- The inaugural Prudential Eye Awards announced a shortlist of 20 Asian artists. The shortlisted artists are Daniel Crooks, Baden Pailthorpe, Pussy Riot and Yang Yong Liang (digital/ video); Lee Jaehyo, Irina Korina, Jompet Kuswidananto, and Sun Yuan & Peng Yu (installation); Tony Garifalakis, Fiona Lowry, Lam Tung Pang, and Ben Quilty (painting); Eric Bridgeman, Almond Chu, Chaewook Lim, and Trent Parke (photography); and Yong Ho Ji, Yuji Honbori, Seoung Wook Sim and Anna Zhelud (sculpture).

The winners of each category along with one overall winner will be announced on 18 January 2014 at an awards ceremony in Suntec City, Singapore.

Artists were nominated from across greater Asia representing a diverse range of artistic practice. A judging panel of art world professionals reviewed the works of over 500 nominees to select four finalists in each of the five categories.

Alongside substantial monetary prizes for the winners, the Awards will also give these artists the opportunity to showcase their work in an exhibition from 17 January - 5 February 2014 at Suntec City, Singapore. The overall winner will also receive a solo exhibition at Saatchi Gallery, London, UK in summer 2014. The 20 shortlisted artists will feature in a limited edition publication published by Skira.

The sculpture category includes artists from Japan, Korea and Russia. Sculptures range from Yuji Honbori’s riffs of traditional Buddhist iconography to Yong Ho Ji’s large scale hybrid mythological beasts and sea creatures constructed with steel, used tires and fibre-reinforced plastic.

Painters include Australia’s Fiona Lowry whose figures inhabit out-of-focus, haunting, psychologically loaded landscapes. Hong Kong’s Lam Tung Pang’s paintings integrate mixed media and urban motifs to disrupt idealistic sweeping landscapes.

In the category of photography, Hong Kong based artist Almond Chu forms dramatic compositions by digitally multiplying his models into crowds parading in front of iconic Chinese monuments such as Beijing’s Olympic Stadium. Eric Bridgeman, based in Australia and Papua New Guinea, submits a selection of reconstructed photographic scenarios featuring Simbu villagers that subvert the history and permanence of picture taking through focussing on the contemporary daily lives of Papua New Guineans.

Installation artists were nominated from China, Korea, Indonesia and Russia. Indonesian Jompet Kuswidananto’s politically-charged piece titled The Third Realm, features a brigade of bodiless soldiers equipped as a marching band. The military costumes, musical instruments and boots are lined up ready to march alongside absent, but harnessed horses. Korea’s Lee Jaehyo melds his installations into the landscape with an overlarge half-moon crescent of tree trunks and a perfectly spherical globe of tree segments.

Yang Yong Liang presents a bleak black and white landscape of urban integration in China’s karst mountains in his digital works titled The Day of Perpetual Night, Infinite Landscape and Phantom Landscape. Also shortlisted is Baden Painthrope’s Cadence, where kaleidoscopes of soldiers emerge from a central point to expand across the surrounding landscape.

Serenella Ciclitira, Founder, Prudential Eye Awards and panellist judge said:“We founded the Prudential Eye Awards to increase awareness of contemporary artists practicing in greater Asia. Beyond recognising the achievements of the artists we have shortlisted this year, we hope the Awards will provide a future platform for emerging artists to exhibit their work internationally and help nurture the careers of promising talent in the region.”

Nigel Hurst, CEO, Saatchi Gallery and panellist judge said: “The range and breadth of contemporary art we reviewed is only possible in greater Asia. The diverse geographic origins and cultural influences in the work of hundreds of nominees presented the judges with a very interesting challenge. We hope the Awards provide the international showcase that the shortlisted artists deserve.”