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2020 Art Awards

Each year Tribeca and CHANEL bring together world-class artists who donate a piece of their work to be presented as an award to honored Festival filmmakers, a tradition since the Festival’s beginning. The 2020 Tribeca Film Festival Art Awards, presented by CHANEL, features the work of one artist returning to support the program for his 19th year in addition to nine other artists who were personally selected by this year’s curator and notable gallerists, Vito Schnabel.

A Word from Our Curator

I was born and raised in New York City and remember very clearly Tribeca Film Festival's first year in 2002. The Festival brought life back to downtown in the aftermath of 9/11, and was a source of light in a very dark and difficult time in our city. Since then, it has evolved into an essential event on the international film circuit and a highlight on cultural calendars everywhere.

Almost two decades later, we find ourselves in another challenging time. While we cannot gather in person to celebrate the filmmakers and artists, the Festival is showing its never ending support for our community by moving to a virtual format. I'm happy to be a part of this effort to promote the arts, which are now more important than ever.

It is unique for a film festival to present winning filmmakers with works of art, but it makes a lot of sense that Tribeca is the first to do this: this incredible festival takes place in the art capital of the world.

This year, I am honored to have been invited to assemble a cross-generational group of nine artists whose work captures the current mood of contemporary society. This project is inspired by the connection between artists and filmmakers as natural storytellers, creators of narratives that accrue to a form of cultural journalism.

Each artist included in this selection has a special relationship with both New York City and my gallery. I thank them all for being a part of this project and contributing a work for the awards.

Vito Schnabel
New York City 


Rita Ackermann
The Working Woman 3
2018
Oil, crayon and graphite on paper
12 x 9 inches (30.5 x 22.9 cm) FRAMED: 19 3/4 x 16 1/4 x 1 1/4 inches (950.2 x 41.3 x 3.2 cm)
© Rita Ackermann; Photo: Genevieve Hanson; Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth
Award: Best New Narrative Director

Rita Ackermann was born in 1968 in Budapest, Hungary. Her recent solo exhibitions include Mama ’19, Hauser & Wirth New York, 22nd Street, New York (2020); Brother and Sister, Hauser & Wirth Zürich, Switzerland (2019); Movements as Monuments, La Triennale di Milano, Italy (2018); Turning Air Blue, Hauser & Wirth Somerset, England (2017); and The Aesthetic of Disappearance, Malmö Konsthall, Malmö, Sweden (2016). She currently lives and works in New York.

Vahakn Arslanian
Light of Airbus
2009
Graphite on paper in artist's frame
28 x 47 inches (71.1 x 119.4 cm)
© Vahakn Arslanian; Photo by Argenis Apolinario
Award: Student Visionary Award

Vahakn Arslanian was born in 1975 in Belgium. Arslanian is mostly self taught, though has studied at the New School and the School of Visual Arts in New York. He has also been called a protégé of Julian Schnabel; the two have worked together since Arslanian was just five years old. Solo exhibitions of Arslanian’s work have been presented at Vito Schnabel Projects, New York; Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York; Marc Jancou Contemporary, Geneva, Switzerland; Tripoli Gallery, Southampton, New York; 20 Hoxton Square Projects, London; and Maccarone Gallery, New York. Arslanian lives and works in New York.

Francesco Clemente
Flag US
2018
Watercolor and miniature on paper
14 1/4 x 18 inches
© Francesco Clemente; Courtesy the artist and Vito Schnabel Projects
Award: Best Documentary Short

Francesco Clemente was born in 1952 in Naples, Italy. He studied architecture at the Università degli Studi di Roma, La Sapienza in Rome in 1970, before turning his focus instead to art. In 2002, Clemente was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Clemente’s work has been presented at numerous international institutions, including Nationalgalerie, Berlin; Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Basel; Philadelphia Museum of Art; Royal Academy of Arts, London; Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Bologna; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Guggenheim Museum Bilbao; Sezon Museum of Art, Tokyo; Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli; and Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. His work is featured in many prominent museum collections worldwide, including the Art Institute of Chicago; Miami Art Museum; Kunstmuseum Basel; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Guggenheim Museum Bilbao; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; and the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Clemente lives and works in New York, Rome, Chennai (formerly Madras), and Varanasi, India.

Helen Marden
January Golden Rock
2020
Watercolor on paper
12 x 8 inches (30.5 x 20.3 cm)
© Helen Marden; Photo by Argenis Apolinario; Courtesy the artist
Award: Best Interntional Narrative Feature

Helen Marden was born in 1941 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She studied at Pennsylvania State University, graduating in 1963. She uses resins, spices, pigments, shells, and acrylics. Her work has been exhibited in the United States and abroad. It was included in Who Chooses Who at the New Museum of Contemporary Art (1994); the 1995 Whitney Biennial; Painting: Now and Forever, Matthew Marks Gallery (1998); The Mom Show (2005) at Rivington Arms; Couples Discourse, Palmer Museum of Art (2006); The Last Brucennial (2014); The Florine Stettheimer Collapsed Time Salon, Jeffrey Deitch (2017); and Helen Marden: Tivoli, Gagosian Gallery, New York, of which a work was acquired by the Museum of Modern Art. Helen Marden lives in New York, and travels and works in Tivoli, NY, and Marrakech, Morocco.

Robert Nava
Medusa's Walk
2020
Acrylic, oil stick, crayon, and pencil on paper
42 x 30 inches
© Robert Nava; Photo by Argenis Apolinario; Courtesy the artist
Award: Best Narrative Short

Robert Nava was born in 1985 in East Chicago, Indiana. He received his BA in Fine Art from Indiana University Northwest in 2008, and his MFA in Painting from Yale University School of Art in 2011. Solo exhibitions of Nava’s work have been presented at Night Gallery, Los Angeles; Sorry We’re Closed Gallery, Brussels; and V1 Gallery, Copenhagen. Nava’s work has been included in group exhibitions at Jeffrey Deitch Gallery, Los Angeles; Carl Kostyal, Malmö; and Safe Gallery, Brooklyn, among others. The Art Institute of Chicago recently acquired a group of works by Nava for their permanent collection. Nava lives and works in Brooklyn, NY

Sterling Ruby
DRFTRS (7204)
2020
Collage, paint, and glue on paper
8 1/2 x 11 inches (21.6 x 27.9 cm) FRAMED: 21 3/8 x 23 7/8 x 1 1/2 inches (54.3 x 60.6 x 3.8 cm)
© Sterling Ruby; Photo by Robert Wedemeyer; Courtesy Sterling Ruby Studio.
Award: Best Documentary Feature

Sterling Ruby was born in 1972. He received a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and an MFA from ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, CA. Ruby works in a wide range of aesthetic and material strategies, from polyurethane, bronze, steel, and ceramic sculptures; to drawings and collages; photography and video; spray-paint and oil paintings; as well as textile works, including quilts, tapestries, garments, and soft sculptures. Public collections include the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Montreal Museum of Fine Arts; Centre Georges Pompidou; Paris; Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek; and Tate Modern, London. Ruby lives and works in Los Angeles.

Julian Schnabel
Le Scaphandre et le Papillon
2007
Oil on map
FRAMED: 49 x 36 x 2 inches (124.5 x 91.4 x 5.1 cm)
© Julian Schnabel; Photo by Tom Powel Imaging; Courtesy the artist and Vito Schnabel Projects
Award: Founders Award for Best Narrative Feature

Julian Schnabel, painter and filmmaker, born in Brooklyn, New York, 1951. First solo painting exhibition, at the Mary Boone Gallery in New York City, 1979. His paintings, sculptures, and works on paper have been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions all over the world. His work is included in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Guggenheim Museum, New York and Bilbao; Tate, London; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid; and Centre Pompidou, Paris. Schnabel wrote and directed six feature films; Basquiat (1996); Before Night Falls (2000), the Grand Jury Prize and Best Actor, Javier Bardem, 2000, Venice Film Festival; The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007), Best Director, Cannes Film Festival, Best Director, Best Foreign Language Film, Golden Globe, four Oscars nominations; Lou Reed’s Berlin (2007); Miral (2010); At Eternity’s Gate (2018), Willem Dafoe as Vincent Van Gogh, Best Actor, 2018 Venice Film Festival, nominated for Best Actor, Golden Globes, and 2019 Academy Awards.

Pat Steir
Untitled
2008
Oil, pencil, ink, and acrylic on paper
20 x 15 inches (50.8 x 38.1 cm)
© Pat Steir; Courtesy Pat Steir Studio
Award: Nora Ephron Award

Pat Steir was born in 1940 in Newark, New Jersey. She studied art and philosophy at Boston University and received her BFA from Pratt Institute in 1962. Exhibitions of Steir’s work have been presented at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California; Des Moines Art Center, Iowa; The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; The Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin; Musée d’art Contemporain, Lyon; Kunstmuseum Bern; Tate Gallery, London; Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam; Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia; and Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C., among many others. Steir’s work is held in the permanent collections of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; Louvre, Paris; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; San Francisco Museum of Fine Arts, California; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Tate Gallery, London; Walker Art Gallery, Minneapolis; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, among others. Steir lives and works in New York.

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Gus Van Sant
Achelous and Hercules
2016
Enamel on paper
Framed: 60 1/2 x 57 1/4 x 1 3/4 inches (153.7 x 145.4 x 4.5 cm)
© Gus Van Sant; Photo by Argenis Apolinario; Courtesy the artist and Vito Schnabel Projects
Award: Albert Maysles New Documentary Director Award

Gus Van Sant was born in 1952 in Louisville, Kentucky. He received his BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence in 1975. Van Sant is admired internationally as a filmmaker, painter, photographer, and musician. His work in different mediums is united by a single overarching interest in portraying people on the fringes of society. Solo exhibitions of Van Sant’s work have been presented at the Musée de l’Elysée in Lausanne, Switzerland; Le Case d’Arte, Milan; the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at the University of Oregon, Eugene; and Vito Schnabel Projects, New York. Among Van Sant’s many internationally acclaimed feature films are Milk (2008); Elephant (2003); Good Will Hunting (1997); My Own Private Idaho (1991); and Drugstore Cowboy (1989). Van Sant lives and works in Los Angeles.

Stephen Hannock will contribute a piece for the 19th year.

To read a special essay from Stephen click here

Stephen Hannock
Wallsend Morning on the River Tyne
2019
15" X 11-1/4", oil on board
© Stephen Hannock
Courtesy of the Artist and Marlborough Gallery
Photo: David Lachman
Award: Best Animated Short

Stephen Hannock is an American luminist painter known for his atmospheric landscapes and incendiary nocturnes. The artist has demonstrated a keen appreciation for the quality of light and for the limitations of conventional techniques for capturing it. His experiments with machine-polishing the surfaces of his paintings give a trademark luminous quality to his work. The larger vistas also incorporate diaristic text that weaves throughout the composition. His design of visual effects for the 1998 film What Dreams May Come won an Academy Award.

His works are in collections worldwide, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, The National Gallery of Art in Washington, and the Yale University Art Gallery.   Hannock's painting of the Connecticut River Oxbow was chosen for inclusion in the recently published Metropolitan Museum of Art, Masterpiece Paintings.   As well, Hannock and frequent collaborator Sting are the contemporary annex to the recent exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art entitled, Thomas Cole's Journey, Atlantic Crossings.   This event coincided with the publication of their long awaited compendium of lyrics, woodcuts, and original paintings from Two Ponds Press.  This year, Hannock’s contribution to the Art Awards program at the Tribeca Film Festival is a painting from this project.
Click here to read a special piece from Stephen Hannock

ABOUT CHANEL

CHANEL is a private company and a world leader in creating, developing, manufacturing and distributing luxury products. Founded by Gabrielle Chanel at the beginning of the last century, CHANEL offers a broad range of high-end creations, including Ready-to-Wear, Leather Goods, Fashion Accessories, Eyewear, Fragrances, Makeup, Skincare, Jewellery and Watches. CHANEL is also renowned for its Haute Couture collections, presented twice yearly in Paris, and for having acquired a large number of specialized suppliers, collectively known as the Métiers d’Art. CHANEL is dedicated to ultimate luxury and to the highest level of craftsmanship. It is a brand whose core values remain historically grounded on exceptional creation. As such, CHANEL promotes culture, art, creativity and “savoir-faire” throughout the world, and invests significantly in people, R&D and innovation. At the end of 2019, CHANEL employed more than 27,700 people worldwide.