Petra Hultman Beckers Art Award 2018
Scholarship exhibition
Main hall, Färgfabriken
Curator Emilia Rosenqvist
The 31th Beckers Art Award – a grant of 200,000 SEK, will this year be awarded to the artist Petra Hultman who graduated from the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm in the spring of 2017. Petra Hultman recives the award her ability to visually and personally reach out to us viewers and at the same time make an impact for the greater good.
Petra Hultman has an interest for how the collective memory and the identity of society are constructed and manifested in the public eye and though individuals. Therefore she uses personal as well public archives to give a visual form to political issues. In her latest work she focuses on the relation between time, work and value with focus on women’s living conditions historically and in todays society.
Her practice is both a collective and collaborative process, which trough different kinds of participation, influence and cooperation interacts with other individuals, groups and institutions.
About the artist
Petra Hultman graduated from The Royal Institute of Art in the spring of 2017 and has besides Beckers Art Awards, received several other honors. Among others Erik and Göran Ennerfelt’s award in culture together with Anna Withlocks memorial fund enabled 2013 a one-year residency at the Art & Cultural Studies Laboratory in Yerevan, Armenia. In 2016 she produced the Exhibition Collect Yourself at the Royal Institute of Art.
Further reading
Jury statement
During our lives things happen, for better and worse that shapes us to the people we are today. Even the smallest decisions can affect the course of our lives and shape us later in life.
Petra Hultman chooses to convey this through her grandparent’s craftsmanship, which she arranges in beautiful objects to celebrate the otherwise hidden craftwork. Her work tells a story about a way to escape the mundane life and the urge to seek comfort in the creation of objects.
Hultman has made her loved ones be a part of her artistry. In her work she carefully documents the remains of years of work and arranges them in ways that tells us about the time, effort and tenderness that has been put into every piece.
Along side these works is also a grand video installation – well presented with its looped films. The video installation paints a bigger picture about cleaning, the absurdity of industriousness and the woman as a slave to her home and husband. The art piece has a powerful message that is presented with warmth and respect. Which is art at it’s finest: the ability to successfully enchant its viewers with its visual expression.
Petra Hultman is awarded with Beckers Art Award 2018 – a grant of 200 000 SEK, because of her ability to visually and personally, no matter technique, reach out to us viewers in an intelligent and sensitive way, but at the same time make an impact for the greater good.
On behalf of the jury/Mårten Castenfors
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