Principal Juror – Fereshteh Daftari, Assistant Curator, Department of Painting and Sculpture, The Museum of Modern Art, New York

Editor's Comments - In selecting the work the publishers asked that diversity be kept in mind as a possible criterion. Diversity must be a goal even if one is bound to one’s limitations. A point to remember, however, is that jurying is not about justice. It is a highly subjective task. Admitting to it is what may endow the process with a little sense
of fairness.

As to why I have been interested in certain works and not others, I will say a few general words on the conscious component that can be articulated; the rest will remain a mystery. In one way or another, my top choices presented an element of surprise. Their subject matter or composition might have intrigued me, or there may have been a quality about the work that allowed ambivalence and questioning. I also tried to pick works with different emotional tones, going from the serious to the comic, from the poetic to the cerebral, or simply something that was dead gorgeous. The stylistic range is also varied. You will find abstraction and figuration, sometimes rendered in a naïve style, sometimes not. I hope that with these few words I have been able to explain my approach to a task that is highly stimulating and at the same time one that inspires humility.