From left: Irelandʼs Ambassador to Hungary Pat Kelly, Sári Ember, John Ward, Mary McLoughlin

The founders of the award are Mary McLoughlin and John Ward, who as collectors and connoisseurs are committed supporters of contemporary art. The members of the international jury in 2019 were Irish curator, artist, writer, and educator Paul O’Neill; Gabriela Kotiková, an art historian and curator living and working in Prague; and Noor Mertens, a Germany-based curator and writer. 

As recognition of her work, Ember received a prize to the value of EUR 10,000, which will be used to support her foray into the international scene through an independent exhibition outside Hungary. The Leopold Bloom Art Award finalistsʼ exhibition is on display in the Ludwig Museum Budapest until August 25, 2019.

Sári Ember was born in São Paulo, Brazil in 1985. She currently lives and works in Budapest. In 2009 she graduated from the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design Budapest (MOME), majoring in photography and visual communications.

Emberʼs works have been exhibited internationally both in solo and group exhibitions, in São Paulo, Paris, Berlin, Antwerp, New York, Brno and Budapest. In 2016, she received the Derkovits Scholarship, and a year later was awarded the Campari Art Prize at Artissima in Turin – where she was represented by the Ani Molnár Gallery – and the Herczeg Klára Award. Last year, she had a solo show at the Galleria Campari in Milan.

Ember is currently exhibiting at the Survival Kit 10.1 art festival in Riga, and working on a two-month residency program of Tranzit.org in Vienna.