Seville, 22 July 2008.- The Focus-Abengoa Foundation today announced the winner of the 25th edition of the Focus-Abengoa Painting Prize as Dis Berlín for his work Circuito de inspiración (Circuit of Inspiration; 162 cm by 195 cm; acrylic and oils on canvas). The jury also recognised the work Fons Vitae (195 cm by 195 cm; acrylic and oils on canvas) by Simón Arrebola and Psicoideo. Máscara (185 cm by 185 cm; paper mounted on white melamine and methacrylate) by Marina Rodríguez, as the runners-up.

Once again, the jury, chaired by Anabel Morillo León, general manager of the Focus-Abengoa Foundation, has faced the difficult task of choosing the winner from among more 438 candidates, of which 77 were from foreign artists. Experts responsible for this selection have been Juan Carrete Parrondo, Juan Fernández Lacomba, Alfonso E. Pérez Sánchez, Manuel Sánchez Arcenegui, Guillermo Pérez Villalta and Jaime Brihuega.

The Focus-Abengoa Painting Prize, awarded for any technique and theme, is worth a total of €36,000, with €24,000 going to first prize, which will be awarded to Dis Berlín, and two runners-up prizes of €6,000 each, which will be presented to Simón Arrebola and Marina Rodríguez. The works of the three winners will form part of the Focus-Abengoa collection of paintings and graphic art.

The jury singled out “the capacity to relate the ornamental with the symbolic, at the same time synthesising all the perspectives and motives from his personal world” in the work Circuito de inspiración by Dis-Berlín. In Fons Vitae, by Simón Arrebola, it highlighted “the prolific suggestive world and the huge capacity for representation, symbolic depth and personal narration”. Psicoideo. Máscara, the work by Marina Rodríguez, was liked by the jury for “its emblematic and iconographic suggestiveness, and its intercultural fusion based on the alchemic and symbolic world”.

The exhibition of the finalists’ and award winners’ works will be opened on Monday 15 September at the Hospital de los Venerables in Seville, the headquarters of the Foundation, where they will remain on show until Friday 24 October.

The Focus-Abengoa painting prize, which has a long tradition and a prestigious reputation, has been held for more than 25 years and has become one of the leading European and American awards in the arts world. This international award allows the Foundation to renew its commitment to contemporary art, and following the concerns and desires of its creators, it helps to produce an exchange of artistic experiences beyond our borders. As shown by previous years, participation in this award strengthens the value of works by recognised painters and opens new channels for young talent, who need both financial and social support in their careers towards becoming professionals.

From the outset the Focus-Abengoa Foundation has expressed a clear interest in all cultural activities, not only in those directly connected to the city of Seville, but all artistic, literary and scientific expressions at a national and international level.

Created by Abengoa in 1982, the Foundation has a mission to carry out Abengoa's social action policy, which it does on a non-profit basis for general interest purposes, focussing on welfare, educational, cultural, scientific, research and technological development. The Foundation has become a valuable instrument in Abengoa culture. Not only is it capable of supporting the professional and human development of its employees, but also of relating to society’s new sensibilities as a whole, globally managing intangible assets whose influence benefits and pervades the company’s own values and objectives.

Information about the award winners

Dis-Berlín (Mariano Carrera, Soria, 1959) began by studying information sciences, but left his studies to dedicate himself to painting. Linked to contemporary and modern Spanish art, he covers a wide range of themes, materials and approaches to create catalogues of work where the most unexpected artistic discoveries occur. He first began exhibiting in the early 1980s. Today his work is on show in centres as prestigious as the Valencia Institute of Modern Art (IVAM); the Artium Museum in Vitoria; the Atlantic Centre Museum of Modern Art in Las Palmas de Gran Canarias, and in the Marugame Irai Museum in Kagawa (Japan). His productive and extensive career has led him to exhibit in more than fifty galleries and exhibitions such as the Palace Gallery in Granada; the Columela Gallery in Madrid, the Exhibition Room at Banco Zaragozano in Zaragoza; the Dense Levy Gallery in Barcelona; the My Name’s Lolita Art Gallery in Valencia; the Siboney Gallery in Santander and the Conde Duque Cultural Centre in Madrid.

Simón Arrebola Parras (Torre  del  Campo,  Jaén,  1979) is a fine arts graduate specialising in painting, engraving and design from the University of Seville. Despite his youthfulness, his work has already formed part of numerous exhibitions, including the group exhibition Geografías del agua. Del inconsciente estático a la mirada líquida in Antequera (Malaga); the Becas Talens 2003 exhibition of the Young Art Talent Exhibition in Barcelona; the exhibition with the Manglar group in the Baluarte de la Candelaria, Cádiz, and the exhibition in the Palacio Quintanar in Segovia.
This young Sevillian artist received the final dissertation award and the Real Maestranza award of Seville for the best collective work in the Faculty of Fine Arts in Seville 1997-2002.

Marina Rodríguez Vargas (Granada, 1980) is a fine arts graduate from the University of Granada. She has participated in numerous group exhibitions in galleries such as the prestigious Seville Arts Centre, the Contemporary Art Museum in Álava, the Museo de la Ciudad and the Círculo de Bellas Artes, both in Madrid. She is currently exhibiting her work outside of Spain in the Constantini Gallery in Milan; the Lyle Oreitzel Gallery in Miami, and the Gabriel Elizondo Gallery in Mexico.
Her work also forms part of important private and public collections, such as the collection of the Basque Museum of Contemporary Art (Artium), the Caja Extremadura collection, the Gregorio Prieto Foundation collection, the Antonio Gala Foundation collection and the Caja Granada collection.

Winner Focus-Abengoa Painting Prize 2008. Author: Dis-Berlín. Picture: ''Circuito de inspiración''.

Accesit Focus-Abengoa Painting Prize 2008. Author: Simón Arrebola. Picture:"Fons Vitae".

Accesit Focus-Abengoa Painting Prize 2008. Author: Marina Rodríguez. Picture: "Psicoideo. Máscara".