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Mads Holm: In Control, Dublin (2015) From ‘About Common Ground’ |
Mads Holm, a final year Fine Art Photography student at The Glasgow School of Art has won the 2016 Danish Embassy Art Prize it was announced today, 11 March 2016. Open to all Danish Students studying in the UK, the prize offers the winner the opportunity to show a body of work in the Danish Embassy for a full calendar year. Mads, who studied in New York before coming to The Glasgow School of Art, won the prize for a About Common Ground, a series of art photographs. A selection of the images will go on show at the Danish Embassy in London on Thursday 17 March 2016.
“I like to think of the camera as a tool for investigation,” says Mads. “Photography is my way of making notes of the world surrounding me and aspects of contemporary society with which I am concerned. It is also a way to explore and express my fascination with what I encounter.”
“I am deeply interested in human life and creation, how we have structured ourselves on this planet and how the structures affect our behaviour and interaction along with the conflicts and frustration they cause. It is also important for me to look properly at things, and the camera fits perfectly with that curiosity and desire to explore.”
“The Danish Embassy Art Prize was the first prize or exhibition I applied for with the material from About Common Ground, so actually winning the prize was an incredible recognition of the project.”
“We are delighted that Mads has won this prestigious award,” says Lesley Punton, Head of Fine Art Photography at The Glasgow School of Art. “It is well deserved recognition for a major body of work that he has been developing for some time.”
The Danish Embassy exhibition will be open to the public until March 2017 (by prior appointment only. Contact: lonambculture@um.dk / Tel: +44 (0)20 7333 0244)
Work from About Common Ground will also be on display in the Tontine Building at GSA Degree Show from 18 - 25 June 2016. Open Monday – Friday 10am – 9pm; Sat/Sun 10am – 4pm. Entry free.
Ends
Further information
Lesley Booth
0779 941 4474
Notes for Editors
Mads Holm was born in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1990. He studied photojournalism and documentary photography in New York before he began a BA(Hons) degree at Glasgow School of Art where he graduates from this summer.
ABOUT THE DANISH EMBASSY ART PRIZE
Each year Danish arts students in the UK can submit work to the Danish Embassy Art Prize. The winner is be selected on the basis of advice from an external professional visual art panel. This year the panel members were Marie Nipper, Senior Curator at Tate Liverpool; Mads Damsbo, Director of Brandts Art Museum; and Barry Phipps, Director of Visual Art, The Møller Centre and Fellow, Churchill College, University of Cambridge.