The jury praised Sasnal's "expressive kaleidoscope of the present," which blends personal experience with collective memory and political themes, drawing on art history, media images, and his own photographs.
It described his art as “reflecting both the analogue and digital reality, while preserving its sovereign artistic autonomy.”
Launched in 1957, the Rubens Prize is awarded every five years to a European artist in recognition of their outstanding achievements in the fields of painting and graphic art.
In addition to EUR 25,000 in prize money, Sasnal will have a one-man exhibition at the Modern Art Museum in Siegen, and a selection of his works will be included in the prestigious Lambrecht-Schadeberg Collection, alongside works of the previous recipients of the prize such as Francis Bacon, Cy Twombly, Lucian Freud, Maria Lassnig, Sigmar Polke, Bridget Riley, and Miriam Cahn.
The Rubens Prize is named after the famous Baroque painter, Peter Paul Rubens, who was born in Siegen in 1577.
Sasnal was born in 1972 in Tarnów, south-eastern Poland. In 1999, he graduated from the Fine Arts Academy in Warsaw. His works are part of the collections of the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Saatchi Gallery and the Tate Modern in London, the Museum of Modern Art and The Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art in Warsaw, as well as numerous private collections. He is also a filmmaker.
(mk)