SINGAPORE — Into its 32nd year, the much-talked-about UOB Painting of the Year Competition organised by United Overseas Bank (UOB) yesterday unveiled its winners for this year’s competition.

In a surprise win, German-born Stephanie Hauger, who is a permanent resident and who has lived in Singapore for 20 years, took home both the newly-introduced UOB South-east Asian Painting of the Year Award and the UOB Painting of the Year Award (Singapore).

Hauger titled her acrylic-on-canvas piece Space Odyssey. According to her, it is a contemporary interpretation of a mandala and shows an abstract representation of a healthy planet as seen from space. Hauger, a former interior designer who only started producing art professionally in 2011, said it represented her desire for the audience to care for it.

Over the decades, the categories for submission have evolved, although the competition has steadfastly continued to encourage artists to create works that push the boundaries of creativity. Indeed, this mission has led to controversy in the past, such as when a photograph submission won the top honours and when a 16-year-old pipped seasoned veterans. As such, the rules were last modified in 2011 to exclude photography and focus on painting. This year, UOB has again tweaked the format of the annual painting competition by adding a UOB Southeast Asian Painting Of The Year award to the four existing UOB Painting Of The Year awards, given to artists in the country categories of Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia.

Also, the competition was divided into Emerging Artist and Established Artist categories. While the Emerging Artist segment is open to all, the Established Artist competition is open to professional artists who have to fulfil at least one of four criteria: Be represented or have been represented by a gallery; have exhibited or sold a piece of art; been commissioned to produce an artwork; or have produced a personal catalogue of their work.

The competition came with a total prize pool of US$200,000 (S$251,000), making it one of the largest purses among art competitions in the region. In the Established Artist category, the winners of the Painting Of The Year award each received US$25,000 cash. Hauger won an additional US$10,000, for being the overall winner.

The other regional winners in that category were Suroso Isur of Indonesia; Gan Tee Sheng (Malaysia) and Aphiphol Techamangkhalanon (Thailand). In the Emerging Artist category, Lim Quan Zhao took home the UOB Most Promising Artist Of The Year (Singapore) award for his work, The Transcendence Of Love.

This year’s judging panel included luminaries such as Chua Soo Bin, founder of SooBin Art International, Susie Lingham, Director of Singapore Art Museum, and Mok Kim Chuan, Director and Head of auction house Sotheby’s Southeast Asian Paintings Department. On the latest rule change, Mok praised UOB for fine-tuning the competition and raising the standards of the contest, adding that the best works were selected based on creativity, outstanding technique and the artist’s expression of ideas.

Hauger’s entry, he said, “stood out”. “We kept coming back to it. For us, the painting came through on a multi-level message — it’s not a localised theme but a universal one.”

Arts observers said the latest changes have helped raised the bar and levelled the playing field for artists with similar levels of experience. According to Benjamin Hampe, Co-Owner and Director of Chan Hampe Galleries and also an External Assessor for the National Arts Council, the UOB Painting Of The Year is important as it the oldest art prize in Singapore.

“There is a dearth of such opportunities in Singapore so it is encouraging to see UOB stick by this programme for so many years,” he said. “And there will always be contention in such awards and no doubt there will be some this year. I will say some of the works were exceptional and I was particularly surprised by the quality of some works in the Emerging category. The new categories are a positive move — however, I think a more rigorous selection of artists in the Established category is in order for this to become a credible art award.”

The artists’ works will be exhibited at 73-12 Gallery in Singapore from Nov 26 to Dec 7, before touring the region.