2023: FAITH XLVII, Multimedia Artist (South Africa)

Selected from among hundreds of entries hailing from more than 50 countries total, Faith XLVII is a multidisciplinary street artist from South Africa who is known as one of the world’s most prominent female street artists. Her journey into art began on the streets of South Africa in 1997, as a young graffiti writer taking on the name Faith47. Since 2006, she has developed a multidisciplinary artistic practice. Monumental and intimate, private and public, her artwork takes the form of murals, video installations, sculptures, tapestries, drawings… Deconstructing notions of value and place, and investigating forms of domination, she explores the shapes of human perception. In quest of the divine, she expresses a longing for a deeper connection to the wisdom of the natural world.

Faith speaks to issues of human rights, spiritual endurance and social issues. Faith XLVII began painting in 1997, three years after the end of apartheid. Using a wide range of media, her approach is explorative and substrate appropriate – from found and rescued objects, to time-layered and history-textured city walls, to studio-prepared canvas and wood. A self-taught artist, Faith is widely regarded as one of the most famous South African street artists, her art reaching international fame.

2022: GJERT ROGNLI, Multimedia Artist (Norway)
A Norwegian multimedia artist of indigenous Sami origin, Gjert Rognli works with film, photography, sculpture and performance to question identity, religious roots, sexuality, silence, and time. For his residency project What Nature Knows, he created a performance @ Last Frontier NYC wherein he combined film, sound and sculpture into a narrative referencing his upbringing in the Arctic region among shamans steeped in the ancient animist folk religion.

He was born in Manndalen in Kåfjord, which is now renowned for the large Riddu Riđđu indigenous festival. As an adult Rognli became seriously interested in his Sea Sami background. His artistic work is mythical and staged and derives inspiration from his home areas. Rognli often has overlapping motifs in his photo series and films. In his tableaux we encounter atmospheric landscapes containing objects, inexplicable lights and rings of light. Rognli often works with both natural and artificial light sources and sometimes his pictures have grotesque elements, such as a huddled naked human body (the artist himself) with a reindeer head.

In The Dawn of Day, a blood-red river flows through the landscape, while a black bird flies through the forest. The picture can be interpreted in relation to Rognli's Sea Sami roots and the pain suffered by the Sami population, something which has led to the loss of their history and traditions. In many cases the Sami have been displaced from their own landscape.

2021: JULIE DUMONT, Curator (Belgium/Brazil)

The Bridge Project is a São Paulo-based, nomadic curatorial initiative created by Julie Dumont (Brussels, 1974). Working with partners from São Paulo, Brussels, New York and others, this one-woman-enterprise offers visibility to artists through the presentation and documentation of exhibitions, as well as international residencies.

Because of pandemic-related restrictions, Julie was unable to carry out her
intended residency project during her stay on our platform. Instead, she took advantage of her time onboard for self-directed research and networking.

2019: AHMED UMAR, Multimedia Artist (Sudan/Norway)
Our very first award winner, Sudanese-Norwegian Visual Artist Ahmed Umar completed his residency onboard Mothership in May/June of 2019. He gave an artist talk at the monthly Mothership salon and presented his interactive performance/installation If You No Longer Have A Family, Make Your Own in Clay during Night of A Thousand Thrills at Last Frontier NYC.

Ahmed Umar (Arabic: أحمد عمر, born 10 February 1988) is a Sudanese-Norwegian visual artist and LGBT activist who campaigns for gay visibility. He grew up in a conservative family in Sudan, before fleeing to Norway where Umar's artistic work mixes Sudanese (e.g., the Black Pharaohs of the ancient Kingdom of Kush and western influences by blending stories as a foundation for the works. His experience of coming out as one of the first openly gay Sudanese was detailed in the film The Art of Sin.