Zanzibar-born artist, educator and curator Lubaina Himid has been named the winner of the 2023 Maria Lassnig Prize, a biennial award that recognizes mid-career artists and comes with a cash prize of €50,000 (55 $000). Himid will present a solo exhibition at the UCCA Contemporary Art Center in Beijing, the institutional partner of this year’s prize; the show will be its inaugural exhibition in Asia.
“Lubaina Himid’s bold formal innovations and incisive historical explorations have established her as one of the most important voices in global contemporary art,” UCCA Director Philip Tinari said in a statement. “UCCA is honored and delighted to be able to present its work to the public in China for the first time.”
Born in 1954, Himid moved to England with her mother, a textile designer, when she was only four months old, following the death of her father. She launched her career as an artist in the mid-1980s, creating works that addressed themes of cultural history, slavery and recovery as well as issues of gender and identity. At the same time, she worked as a curator, notably organizing shows including “Into the Open” in 1984. Originally presented at the Mappin Art Gallery in Sheffield, England, and traveling to venues across the country, the exhibition is widely considered the first major survey of the work of new black British artists.
In 2017, Himid became the first black woman to win the prestigious Turner Prize and, to date, the oldest person to receive this honor. A Royal Academician, she received a CBE for her contributions to the arts in 2018. She is Emeritus Professor of Contemporary Art at the University of Central Lancashire. Himid was the subject of a solo exhibition at the Tate Modern in London in 2021. His work is held in the collection of institutions around the world, including the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; the Rennie Collection, Vancouver; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Tate and the Victoria & Albert Museum, both in London; Cantonal Museum of Fine Arts, Lausanne; Museum Ludwig, Cologne; and the Sharjah Art Foundation.
The award was designed by Maria Lassnig before her death in 2014 at the age of ninety-four. Previous winners are Cathy Wilkes (2017, MoMA PS1, New York), Sheela Gowda (2019, Lenbachhaus, Munich) and Atta Kwami (2021, Serpentine Galleries, London).
