The art world has always been international, with paintings by geniuses like Picasso and Jackson Pollock found all over the world. Modern artists are also gaining recognition in the international art scene, with the Global Art Awards, which is essentially the Oscars for visual arts, with the being held in Dubai on the 21st of November.
The Awards have 16 different categories, including conceptual art, newcomer, mixed media, photography, abstract art and sculpture – among many others! To find out more about the ceremony, the awards themselves and the contenders we spoke to international art dealer Joelle Dinnage.
Joelle is an entrepreneur from the Netherlands who has been involved in the art world from a very young age. In 2011 she founded the Global Art Agency, and has organised international art fairs all over the world.
Joelle, tell us a bit about the Global Art Awards. How did they get started?
The Global Art Awards was always part of the international art fairs we organise (Tokyo International Art Fair, Amsterdam, Oxford, Barcelona, Miami, Rotterdam, Vienna). Awarding the Best Artist of the Art Fair. I found out that the Artists gained so much success after winning the awards. It boosted their career, they tripled their income on selling more pieces, for more money, and got invited to exhibitions all over the world. It was a simple decision for me to start organising the first Global Art Awards Ceremony solely dedicated on awarding the outstanding artists, with the first show last year in the Armani Hotel, Burj Khalifa, and this year at the amazing Five Palm Jumeirah Dubai.
What is your involvement in the awards?
I am the Founder and Director, I visualised the idea where artists from all over the world could get nominated in 16 different categories, and could get awarded in front of international press, and important people for example Royalty in UAE. I wanted an event where the Visual Arts would be celebrated to an extend that it would become the Oscars for the Visual Arts, and it has now – how cool is that!
Are there any categories that you will be particularly watching for?
The Painting Category is always a popular one. We’ve received for that category alone over 750 nominations, and the competition is fierce, the Jury will have a hard time. Furthermore is Street Art one of my favourites but also Conceptual and the Innovative Category.
One category is innovative art – can you explain what it takes for a piece to be defined as “innovative”?
We see a lot of art that reminds us of a previous piece of art we’ve seen before, or techniques that are used more commonly. It’s hard to be different, because people take inspiration from each other. I mean Pablo Picasso himself said “Bad artists copy. Good artists steal.” So the Innovative Category is a very important Category. We want to see new, refreshing talent that the world will be impressed with. The Winner will be going to get very far in his career winning this award.
There are eight judges for this event – how are they chosen?
The Jury is chosen for on their expertise in the Art World. The Jury exists out of members of Artnet, ArtPrice, Reorient, Lecturers, but also renowned Art Collectors. And this year we have a special surprise guest that will make their entrance at the Global Art Awards of which I am very excited about…!
There are a lot of finalists for the painting category, while others such as video and street art have comparatively few contenders – is there a reason why there is such a disparity?
Like I said the Painting Category had over 750 nominations alone, and it was a very intense selection so we decided to have more Finalists in the Painting Category and instead of announcing 1 winner, we will have a second prize and third prize for this category too, which increases the winners opportunity of winning and therefore more artists will be able to benefit.
Finally, can you give us some tips about the likely winners?
Nothing can be told… until the winners will be announced on the 21st November 2018 at the FIVE Palm Jumeirah Dubai.