"Harangue" – a work of art in ceramic by Sara Möller.
Sara Möller, a young ceramic artist from southern Sweden, has received the 2013 Beckers Art Award, one of the country’s most prestigious art prizes.
Möller, 31, a graduate of the School of Design and Crafts in Gothenburg, is exhibiting her award-winning collection at Färgfabriken in Stockholm from April 20 to June 2. She will also receive a grant of SEK 150,000 (€17,500).
Sara Möller becomes the 27th recipient of the prize. Past winners have included some of Sweden's most innovative and exciting artists, among them Dan Wolgers in 1989 and Nathalie Djurberg in 2006.
The Beckers Art Award jury, headed by Lindéngruppen chairman Jenny Lindén Urnes, said Möller's work created "a ceramic artistic discovery full of presence and sense".
"She combines the ceramic with wood, textile, watercolour and metal. She creates objects full of knowledge, concentration and coincidence in a beautiful symbiosis ... showing the potential of different kinds of materials and how it's possible to break the boundaries of creation with ceramics."
Möller uses clay as her main material and describes her art as a mix of primitivism and surrealism. "I work with elemental themes – ur basic human needs and the relationship between our bodies and the earth. We are part of nature and will all revert to dust one day."
She said the prize money would allow her to work full-time on her art over the coming year, while the exposure gained from the award would help her to take her art to the next level.
"Just having the opportunity to exhibit at Färgfabriken – being taken seriously as an artist and receiving professional help to set up my exhibition – is a great honour," she said.
Art lovers will be able to view Möller's art at Färgfabriken until early June. She will exhibit at "Home in the Woods" – a Scandinavian design, fashion and art event in New York – followed by a one-month stint as artist-in-residence at the SIM Residency in Reykjavik, Iceland, in June.
Later this year Möller will exhibit her work at an exhibition in Gothenburg in September. A second showing will take place in her home city in April 2014.
For further information, see www.fargfabriken.se and www.saramoller.com
