IRELAND'S largest art prize was last night won by Austrian-based artist Nikolaus Gansterer.
Gansterer was chosen from more than 800 submissions to collect the £20,000 MAC International Prize, with the shortlist of 13 including artists from Ireland, Italy, Romania, Hungary, Croatia, Canada, USA, Palestine, Austria, France and Turkey.
A range of mediums were represented, including photography, film, installation, sculpture and drawing.
Cited as one of the most substantial prizes in the UK and funded by Arts Council NI, Tourism NI and Belfast City Council, the presentation was made at a packed ceremony in Belfast's MAC by Anne Barlow, director at Tate St Ives.
The winning installation is Wor(l)ding: a meshwork of sense in flux, (2018), a mixed media installation with a wall drawing, 3 channel video work and hanging object.
Judges Ms Barlow, Hugh Mulholland, senior curator at the MAC Belfast and Ba?ak ?enova, curator, CrossSections (Vienna, Helsinki and Stockholm) praised the "breadth and quality of applications for this 2018 edition".
Mr Mulholland said it "has quickly positioned itself as a must-see exhibition with our visitors and is an important international platform for artists".
"The exhibition and the significant prize on offer to an individual artist is a demonstration of the MAC's continued commitment to supporting ambitious and challenging work within contemporary visual art practice."
Roisin McDonough, chief executive of the Arts Council said the prize "raises Northern Ireland’s profile as a serious player on the international arts scene".
The MAC International Prize is a biennial event which launched in 2014.
