Berlin-based artist Rosa Barba has received the Calder Prize for 2019, winning a $50,000 cash prize and the opportunity to have a signature work placed in a major collection. The Calder Prize is awarded annually by the Calder foundation to ‘a contemporary artist whose innovative work reflects the continued effluence of [Alexander] Calder’s legacy’. Barba is the eighth artist to receive the Calder Prize joining a group of previous laureates including Tomás Saraceno (2009), and Haroon Mirza (2015).
Primarily working with film, Barba’s work explores subjects concerning the public realm, looking at the built environment and natural landscapes through documentary formats and fictional narratives. Barba previously participated in a project for the Whitney Museum where artists were to respond to an artwork by Calder through film or video. The resulting work Enigmatic Whisper (2017) has been shown the Serpentine Galleries, London, and at Secession, Vienna.
11 February 2020
