The Volkskrant Visual Arts Prize 2024*

This spring, the Stedelijk Museum Schiedam is presenting a retrospective of the Danish artist Else Alfelt (1910-1974). Through her fascination with nature and the cosmos, Alfelt carved out a niche for herself within the international Cobra movement. Her colourful and abstract landscapes often feature motifs that were important to her, such as the moon, the sun, mountains, rivers, spirals and other natural elements.

Victor Crepsley, Sebastian Haquin, Narges Mohammadi, Josse Pyl and Dion Rosina are the nominees for the fifteenth edition of the Volkskrant Visual Arts Prize. From 6 April, the works of these artists will be on show in an exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum Schiedam.

The Volkskrant Visual Arts Prize is a prestigious art award for talented artists up to the age of 35 who live or work in the Netherlands. The artists are nominated by scouts from the world of art and culture and stand a chance of winning two prizes: the Jury Prize, worth €10,000, and the People’s Choice Award, worth €2,500. From this year onwards, the prize money will be funded by the De Groot Fund in Schiedam.

The scouts and the People’s Choice Award

The shortlisted artists for this edition were nominated by fashion designer Duran Lantink, artist and curator Charl Landvreugd, curator Inez Piso, artist Constant Dullaart and art collective/gallery Opperclaes (Linda van der Vleuten and Bruce Tsai). These five scouts act as ‘ambassadors’ for their chosen candidate, and at the opening of the exhibition they explain why their artist deserves to win the Volkskrant Visual Arts Prize. The winner – to be announced in May – will be chosen by a panel of experts, including at least one previous winner.

In addition to the Jury Prize, the public also get to have their say: the winner of the public vote will win €2,500. Visitors can cast their votes in a ballot box at the exhibition. The winner of the People’s Choice Award will be announced on Sunday 9 June as part of a special public event.

About the five nominated artists

Victor Crepsley

​Victor Crepsley’s real name is Jason Dolman (1996). His alter ego is derived from Larten Crepsley, the vampire from a book series. The name also evokes the words ‘victory’ and ‘crap’ – or ‘the victor of rubbish’.

From Flügel bottles to Playmobil magazines, Victor Crepsley uses the things he collects to construct a world that he says is “universal in its beauty and ugliness”. He combines film, collage, sculpture, music, photography and live performance to create alluring and sometimes hysterical works of art.

Duran Lantink on why he nominated Victor Crepsley: “The versatility of Victor’s work never ceases to amaze me.”

Narges Mohammadi

​Narges Mohammadi (1993) fled Afghanistan with her parents as a child. Her award-winning graduation project at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague was an architectural installation made from 700 kilos of Persian halva, a traditional Middle Eastern dessert.

She paid tribute to her father, who died when she was a child, with a six-metre-high onion made of sugar glass. Because of that piece, scout and curator Inez Piso always thinks of Narges Mohammadi when she’s chopping onions, “because she uses everyday materials and food rituals to evoke such powerful memories”.

Scout Inez Piso on her decision to nominate Narges Mohammadi: “Narges’ art is accessible and really touches me because she uses everyday materials and food rituals to evoke powerful memories. Whenever I’m in the kitchen chopping onions, I always think of her work.”

Sebastian Haquin

​Sebastian Haquin (1991) is a figurative painter who puts his own spin on portraits, still lifes and allegorical scenes. “His poetic paintings, with a subtle queer undertone, depict the underlying nervousness of people in their twenties and thirties,” says artist Charl Landvreugd, who nominated Haquin.

Haquin was born in London, went to art school in Melbourne and has been working in Rotterdam for several years. He paints his oil paintings alla prima, without allowing the layers to dry in between. He draws his inspiration from dreams and distorted memories, which he repaints using models.

Dion Rosina

​Dion Rosina’s (1991) paintings and mystical collages are based on historical imagery, unexplained phenomena, mythology and his own imagination. They revolve around the underexposed history of the African diaspora and how it resonates to this day.

“Dion Rosina sees an opportunity to give historical images a new, contemporary and multi-layered meaning,” says the art collective Opperclaes, which nominated him. “By depicting people of colour in his work, he enriches the story of Dutch painting.”

Josse Pyl

​Josse Pyl (1991) sees our everyday surroundings as one big web of language. This web – comprising not only letters and lines, but also, for example, contact – is depicted in his drawings, sculptures, architectural installations and videos. Pyl explores language as a “malleable material that shapes our environment and our thinking”.

Scout Constant Dullaart on why he nominated Josse Pyl: “When I saw his work for the first time at Werkplaats Typografie, I was overcome by a feeling of excitement and joy, as well as the fear that my presence might disturb the intimate choreography of logic and madness.”

About the Volkskrant Visual Arts Prize

The Volkskrant Visual Arts Prize is a prestigious art award for talented artists up to the age of 35 who live or work in the Netherlands. The artists are nominated by scouts from the world of art and culture. Previous winners include Femmy Otten, Guido van der Werve, Evelyn Taocheng Wang, Anne Geene and Özgür Kar. Following the award, the Stedelijk Museum Schiedam often maintains a close relationship with the artists, as demonstrated by the recent solo exhibitions of former nominees such as Zoro Feigl and Femmy Otten. In 2022, the prize was awarded to Salim Bayri, who was nominated by scout Abdelkader Benali.

The Volkskrant Visual Arts Prize is a collaboration between the Volkskrant and the Stedelijk Museum Schiedam, with the support of De Groot Fund in Schiedam, which provides the funding for the prizes. Director of De Groot Fund, Luuk Ruys: “We think it’s important that such a prestigious art prize is organised in Schiedam and that the best young artists in the Netherlands are presented here.”

Museum director Anne de Haij: “The Prize ties in with our ambition to provide a museum stage for contemporary Dutch artists and to make their work accessible to a wide audience. After the event, we continue to follow the careers of many of the nominees of the Volkskrant Visual Arts Prize.”

The five artists nominated for the fifteenth edition of the Volkskrant Visual Arts Prize will present their work at the Stedelijk Museum Schiedam from 6 April to 23 June 2024. The winner of the Jury Prize will be announced in May 2024; the winner of the People’s Choice Award will be announced on Sunday 9 June 2024.