The fourth annual UOVO Prize was awarded to Suneil Sanzgiri (SMACT ’17), an artist, researcher, and filmmaker whose exhibition will debut later this year at the Brooklyn Museum. Sanzgiri will present a segment of a forthcoming feature-length film at the museum within an installation incorporating sculptural and archival materials. Sanzgiri’s works have thus far primarily been exhibited in cinemas, including at the International Film Festival Rotterdam and Hong Kong International Film Festival. This exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum will allow for an expansion of his work into a three-dimensional experience, where he can include sculptural aspects and ephemera related to his research.
Sanzgiri is best known for a trio of three short films that focus on the tumultuous history of Goa. As Claire Voon wrote in her article for The Art Newspaper, “Interweaving anti-imperialist revolutionary struggles with the shaping of his own family and identity, they draw on sources from Indian cinema to Portuguese literature to video of present-day conversations with his father. The films seamlessly traverse time and place, and use various media to explore the material and immaterial traces of resistance.”
Since 2020, the Brooklyn Museum has recognized the work of emerging Brooklyn-based artists with the UOVO Prize. Awarded annually, the prize includes a solo exhibition at the Museum, a fifty-by-fifty-foot public art installation on the facade of UOVO’s facility in Bushwick, and a $25,000 unrestricted cash grant.
Previous UOVO Prize winners are John Edmonds, Baseera Khan, and Oscar yi Hou.
Read more about Suneil Sanzgiri and the UOVO Prize in The Art Newspaper and Surface Magazine.
