Zambian visual artist Gladys Kalichini receives Henrike Grohs Art Award

The Henrike Grohs Art Award is a roving biennial art prize conceived by Goethe-Institut and the Grohs family in memory of the former head of Goethe-Institut in Abidjan, Henrike Grohs, who was killed along with 18 others during a terrorist attack in Grand-Bassam in 2016.

Kalichini will receive a cash prize of €20 000 (about $22 000) and €10 000 towards the production of a publication of her work. Kalichini was shortlisted together with multi-disciplinary artist Va-Bene Elikem Fiatsi (Ghana) and contemporary artist and curator Temitayo Ogunbiyi (Nigeria), who will receive a cash prize of €5 000 each.

This year’s jury members comprised Ugochukwu-Smooth Nzewi (Nigeria), Princess Marilyn Douala Manga Bell (Cameroon) and Serubiri Moses (Uganda).

“We are pleased to announce Zambian artist Gladys Kalichini as the winner of the Henrike Grohs Art Award 2022,” the jury said. “Her multidisciplinary research-based practice really caught our attention. The award will spur Gladys to continue to push her exacting and boundary-defying practice in interesting directions and could serve as a spark in energising the art scene in her home country of Zambia.”

Applications to the Henrike Grohs Art Award closed on 17 September 2021, with over 260 applications received from 31 countries across the continent. Twenty-two artists were selected for further consideration by a selection committee.

The Henrike Grohs Art Award prize is awarded every two years to an artist or arts collective practising visual arts. It is designed to support emerging artists in their careers, responding to the challenges of practising on the continent.

Grohs was instrumental in setting up the Music In Africa project in 2011. She served as a board member of the Music In Africa Foundation for two years and stepped down to focus on her responsibilities as the director of Goethe-Institut in Abidjan. She was 51 years old at the time of her death.