Yuri Pattison, who is participating in the Projects section of Frieze London this October, is the winner of the 2016 Frieze Artist Award. The artist will realize a major site-specific work at the fair, which runs from October 6-9 in Regent’s Park.
“Yuri Pattison is one of today’s most important young artists looking in a critical way at new technologies,” said Frieze Projects curator Raphael Gygax in a statement. He hopes the award will allow “Pattinson to build upon his thought-provoking and increasingly relevant work, exploring cultures of ‘trending’ in the digital economy and the implications for human industry, creativity, and control.”
Born in Ireland in 1986 and currently based in London, Pattison has upcoming solo exhibitions this year at Chisenhale Gallery, London, and Mother’s Tankstation, Dublin.
At Frieze, Pattison will install a network of large-scale monitors throughout the fair that will collect Buzzfeed-style “trending” data, “enabling a live response to consumer behaviour,” the press release states. Part digital media project, part video, and part sculpture, the piece is inspired by the increasingly-large role data collection plays in our everyday lives.
Pattison’s proposal was selected as the Frieze Artist Award winner through an open call that saw emerging artists from over 75 countries apply. Gygax was joined on the jury by artist Marvin Gaye Chetwynd, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam director Beatrix Ruf, and Kunstverein Hamburg director Bettina Steinbrügge. Frieze artistic director Jo Stella-Sawicka served as chair.
The award, which is supported by the LUMA Foundation, was inaugurated in 2014, when Mélanie Matranga claimed top honors. Rachel Rose took home the prize in 2015.
Frieze London and Frieze Masters will run October 5–October 9, 2016.