Art Prize

B-Open and OSS – Open Studios Stavanger join as our new Art Prize Partners
We are very happy and excited to announce B-Open in Bergen and
OSS – Open Studios Stavanger as our new partners for the Coast Contemporary Art Prize.
B-Open is an Open Studios festival taking place in Bergen between 23-24.09.2023. We will be visiting artists studios with a part of the international program attending Coast Contemporary 2023 during B-Open.
OSS is an Open Studios festival in Stavanger between 30.09-01.10.2023. We will be visiting studios during the festival to discover artists in Stavanger.
One prize winner will be selected from Bergen and one from Stavanger. The prize consists of fully funded participation, production funds and representation during Coast Contemporary 2024.
If your institution or foundation wishes to contribute to our prize with funding of an artist or by inviting the prize winner please get in touch at office@coastcontemporary.no
FORMER PRIZE WINNERS
2022 Viktor Pedersen
2021 Covid cancelled
2020 Anne Lise Stenseth
2019 Ragnhild Aamås
2018 Randi Nygård

ARCHIVE
The first four prizes were granted in collaboration with Oslo Open to honor an artist who opens his, their or her studio during the art festival Oslo Open.
2022
VIKTOR PEDERSEN
Artist Viktor Pedersen was the winner of the Coast Contemporary art prize, 2022.
Pedersen participated in Tromsø during our sixth edition Land of Prey – Witch-hunting in the 21st Century, with a screening of the new film To See Without Man. The work is a collaboration between artist Ingrid K. Bjørnaali and Viktor Pedersen.
To See Without Man is an animated video narrated by poetic reflections originating from attempts to approach and understand the vegetal mind.
Bjørnaali is behind the visual part of the video, where she has worked with photogrammetric 3d scanning of plants that Pedersen grows at home. These plants are mainly in the Nightshade family, and include members like Tobacco, Belladonna, Datura Stramonium, and Mugwort. Specimens that through history have been used for ritual and magic purposes.
Viktor Pedersen (b.1988) works interdisciplinary with video, performance, sound, and text. In his artistic practice, he approaches non-human intelligence to look at how we interact with other organisms in conscious and unconscious ways.
Location: Tromsø.

2020
ANNE LISE STENSETH
Artist Anne-Lise Stenseth – The prize winner was presented with a month long screening of the film Suspended Dust HD 25 min. (2015) including a publication.

She also participated in an artist talk with chair of Oslo Open Trond Hugo Haugen, during “Constructing Structures” curated by Tanja Sæter.
Location: Hovedøya (and Covid-19 limitations).
2019
RAGNHILD AAMÅS
The prize winner Ragnhild Aamås was presented at Håholmen with the out door performance and reading;
urørt&naturleg
untouched&natural
intacte&naturel (once again)


Aamås also presented sculptures and outdoor installations. She participated in 2019 during “Organized Freedom” curated by Sverre Gullesen and Tanja Sæter.
Location: Molde, Håholmen and Bergen.

2018
RANDI NYGÅRD
The prize winner Randi Nygård was presented with the book The Wild Living Marine Resources Belongs to the Society as a Whole, and an artist talk with scholar and author Timotheus Vermeulen, during the second edition “Rugged weathered, above the sea”, curated by Charles Aubin (New York) in dialogue with Artistic Director, Tanja Sæter.
Location: Lofoten to Bergen and Hurtigruten.
JURY MEMBERS
2018
On behalf of Oslo Open: Artist and Chair of Oslo Open, Trond Hugo Haugen.
On behalf of Coast: Coast Advisory Board member, author and art critic Timotheus Vermeulen and founder of Coast, Tanja Sæter.
2019
On behalf of Oslo Open: Artist and Chair of Oslo Open, Trond Hugo Haugen.
On behalf of Coast: artist Sverre Gullesen & founder Tanja Sæter, co-curators of the third edition.
2020
On behalf of Oslo Open: Astrup Fearnley curator and Oslo Open board member Therese Möllenhoff.
On behalf of Coast, Tanja Sæter, founder of Coast.
2021
Oslo Open was Covid-cancelled.
2022
On behalf of Oslo Open: ADirector of the Canica collection and Oslo Open board member Therese Möllenhoff.
On behalf of Coast, Tanja Sæter, founder of Coast.