Kunsthuis SYB

Kunsthuis SYB is pleased to announce the nominees for the Sybren Hellinga Art Prize 2019. The jury, consisting of Peter van der Es (initiator and director Unfair, Amsterdam), Nathalie Hartjes (director MAMA, Rotterdam), Milena Naef (winner of the 7th Sybren Hellinga Art Prize), and Louwrien Wijers (artist), have nominated the following artists: Caz Egelie, Vytautas Kumza, Alina Lupu, Samuel Otte en Natalia Papaeva.

This year, 115 artists responded to the Open Call for the 2019 Sybren Hellinga Artprize. From these applications, SYB’s programming committee formed a longlist, consisting of 23 artists, from which the independent jury compiled a shortlist. The nominees have all graduated with a Bachelor’s degree from an art school in the last 5 years, and are currently living and working in The Netherlands. The shortlisted artists’ work will be on view at Kunsthuis SYB from the 19^th of October until the 3^rd of November.

Caz Egelie (1994) obtained his Bachelor of Fine Art and Design at the HKU, Utrecht in 2018. His work consists of sculptures, performances and 3D animations, and has been shown at Moira (Utrecht), Arti et Armicitiae (Amsterdam), the Vishal (Haarlem), and Palais de Tokyo (Paris), among others. Last week he performed at Welcome to the Village in Leeuwarden with VHDG.

Vytautas Kumža (1992) is a Lithuanian-born, Amsterdam-based photographer who graduated from Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam in 2017. He also studied at the Royal Academy of Arts in The Hague. Over the past years his works were shown at Fondazione Fotografia Modena, the National Gallery in Prague, Showroom MAMA, Rotterdam, had a solo show at museum Villa Mondriaan in Winterswijk and participated at several art fairs in The Netherlands.

Alina Lupu (1985) is a post-conceptual artist and writer. In 2016, she graduated from the Gerrit Rietveld Academie. As of December 2018, she´s had the fortune of getting funded by the local Dutch authorities through the Mondriaan Fund. Before that, she was alternately employed and contracted by Deliveroo, Helpling, Foodora, Uber, Hanze Groningen, Willem de Kooning Rotterdam, de Taart van m´n Tante, and Poké Perfect Amsterdam. Her pension will eventually total a bit over 2 Euros per month. For her, a side-job is not just an abstraction.

Samuel Otte (1980) graduated from the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague in 2016, with an installation and a book, called De Val (The Fall); a simultaneous farewell to his deceased father and his conservative Christian background. The work was on display in the Rotterdam Photo Museum as one of the nominees for the Steenbergen Stipendium. In 2019, his work These are the agreements 1 was shown at Prospects & Concepts at Art Rotterdam.

Natalia Papaeva (1989) was born in Orlik, a small village in Buryatia, Siberia. She moved to the Netherlands to study at the Royal Academy of The Hague. She graduated in 2018 with the video work Yokhor, winning both the department prize at the Royal Academy and the TENT Academy Award. Drawing from her own experiences and feelings of anger, loneliness and alienation, Papaeva makes intense, raw performances that touch upon universal themes.

The award ceremony will take place on Sunday the 3^rd of November, where the jury will announce the winner. He or she will receive the Sybren Hellinga Kunstprijs: an amount of € 3000.

About the award
The Sybren Hellinga Art Prize is named after gallerist Sybren Hellinga (1926-2000). Hellinga headed a gallery, the current Kunsthuis SYB, in Beetsterzwaag (Friesland, the Netherlands) from 1995 until 2000. The prize is meant to support starting artists and will be awarded for the 8th time this year. The 2019 Sybren Hellinga Art Prize is supported by the Sijbren Hellinga Stichting, the Mondriaan Fund, van Teyens Fundatie, the municipality of Opsterland, and media partner BK-informatie.