Barcelona native Laia Abril (1986) is the new National Photography Prize winner. The jury of the award - granted by the Ministry of Culture and Sports and endowed with 30,000 euros - wanted to recognize "a work of artistic research with extensive international experience" and its empathetic way of approaching topics such as sexuality, the body, psychology and Women rights.
The jury has stressed that her work "collects information and documentation in different parts of the planet, concentrating on themes that continue to be current and that socially and politically structure discrimination, especially of women, as well as the individual and collective suffering that relegates to certain people, as an anonymous mass, on the margins of society”
Laia Abril is a multidisciplinary artist who works with photography, text, video and sound. After graduating in Journalism, she worked for five years at the Benetton Factory artist residency in Italy, as a researcher, photographer and creative editor of Colors Magazine.
His work, structured in thematic trilogies, seeks to break social taboos about what is different and promote empathy. Some of his best-known series are On Abortion, On Sexuality, On Eating Disorders or A History of Misogyny. He has published books such as Thinspiration (2012), Tediousophilia (Musée de l'Elysée, 2014) and The Epilogue (Dewi Lewis, 2014), the latter recognized at the Paris Photo-Aperture First Book Award, Kassel PhotoBook Festival and PHotoEspaña Best Book Award. Her work has been exhibited in international exhibitions and is part of private and public collections such as those of the Musée de l’ Elysée and the Fotomuseum Winterthur, the Regional Fund of Contemporary Art of France or the National Art Museum of Catalonia.
The jury, chaired by Isaac Sastre, general director of Cultural Heritage and Fine Arts of the Ministry of Culture and Sports, and acting as vice president, Mercedes Roldán, deputy general director of State Museums, was formed by Ignacio González, editor of Photovision, representing and designation of Cristóbal Hara, National Photography Prize 2022; Marta Gili, director of the École Nationale Supérieure de la Photographie de Arles; Lucia Casani, director of La Casa Encendida; Carlos Gollonet, chief curator of photography at Fundación Mapfre; Cristina Zelich, independent commissioner; Joana Hurtado Matheu, director of Fabra i Coats: Center d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona; María del Carmen Dalmau, art and photography critic and writer; Blanca Berlin, proposed by Women in the Visual Arts, director of the Blanca Berlin gallery, photographer and curator.
