The French conceptual artist Pierre Huyghehas won the Smithsonian's $25,000 Contemporary Artist Award. Every year since 2002 the Smithsonian has given the prize to an artist under 50, with previous winners including Jessica Stockholder (2007), Kara Walker (2004) and Rirkrit Tiravanija (2003). Huyghe (pictured in puppet form from his 2004 film "This Is Not a Time for Dreaming"), who was born in 1962, splits his time between New York and Paris, and tends to carry out conceptual and formal experiments in short films, installations, sculptures and performances. His most recent solo exhibition in New York City closed last month at Marian Goodman Gallery, which represents his work. Watch him explain a planted calendar installation he did last spring at the Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid after the jump.
