After an exciting initial selection round, NP3 and the Groninger Museum have chosen three new candidates for the Young Grunn Artist (YGA) III programme out of more than 45 entrants. In September 2019, Jurjen Galema, Susanna Inglada and Marit Westerhuis will start the one-year talent development programme – and one of them will ultimately win a large solo exhibition in the Groninger Museum.
Jurjen Galema recently graduated from the Frank Mohr Institute with an MA in fine art and design and is a part-time drag queen. When he was growing up in a small town in Friesland, the art world seemed far away. With his soft sculptures, he aims to build bridges by creating worlds populated by eccentric, extravagant figures with intriguing backstories. Gender, identity, kitsch, popular culture and obsessions are themes he investigates and expresses in his own unique way.
Susanna Inglada, also an alumna of the Frank Mohr Institute, finds inspiration in Spanish and Catalan political history, which she often views in terms of violence and the abuse of power. She collects images from the Internet and magazines and processes them into large black-and-white drawings. Placing the drawings in the exhibition space creates a hybrid between a theatrical staging and a diorama, in which the spectator becomes part of an enigmatic psychological battle scene.
Marit Westerhuis is completing a two-year residency at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam. For her degree project at the Frank Mohr Institute three years ago on the subject of "the quantified self", she subjected herself to a radical regime of investigations. Her work draws on research into consciousness and robotics. Fascinated by technology and the human body, she focuses on human-machine themes and transhumanism.
YGA III programme
Each Young Grunn Artist programme is a unique collaboration between NP3 and the Groninger Museum and supplements the existing professional practice of the three selected artists. By providing necessary support, NP3 and the Groninger Museum offer the artists a unique opportunity to take a major step forward in their careers, sharpening and deepening their practice in order to take it to a higher level. An important element of the programme is the formulation of a proposal for an exhibition of new work. One artist is ultimately chosen for a solo show in the Groninger Museum on the basis of his or her development in the YGA programme and the exhibition proposal.