Oskár Čepan Award

Launched in 1996, the Oskár Čepan Award is a competition of young talents in fine arts. Since 2001 it has been named in honour of distinguished Slovak art and literary theoretician, historian, critic, essayist, editor and painter Oskár Čepan (b 27 February 1925 Cífer – d 3 September 1992 Bratislava), author of numerous studies on fine arts. The competition was conceived on the initiative of Wendy W Luers, President of the American Civil Society Foundation. Several Slovak institutions were involved in its organisation: the Slovak National Gallery (SNG), Bratislava (1996), the Academy of Fine Arts and Design (VŠVU) (1997-1998), the Contemporary Art Agency International (1999-2000) and lastly the Centre for Contemporary Art Foundation (2001 to date). It is designed for young Slovak painters, sculptors and graphic artists aged up to 35 years (projects include paintings, statues, graphic art, drawings, installations, photos, multimedia and video art). Its purpose is to encourage young artists, to facilitate public presentation of their works domestically and internationally, and to assist them in becoming established on the professional scene. A panel of experts drawn from art theoreticians and contemporary art creators decides the awards. In addition to receiving a financial award the winner gets a six-week stay in New York (organised by the Foundation for a Civil Society in co-operation with the Trust for Mutual Understanding and the International House at Columbia University), and a solo exhibition upon his or her return from the USA. The award gives recognition to outstanding artistic expression which is a contribution to the Slovak fine arts culture. Since 2002 the Award has been part of an international network of identical competitions, the Young Visual Artists Awards (YVAA). These include the Jindřich Chalupecký Award in the Czech Republic, the Radoslav Putar Award in Croatia, the Dimitrije Bašičević Mangelos Award in Serbia, the Denes Award in Macedonia, the Umelci zajtrajška Award in Kosovo, the Zvono Award in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Ardhje Award in Albania, the Oho Award in Slovenia and the Baza Award in Bulgaria. The 2007 Oskár Čepan Award went to Lucia Nemcová.