Prix de Rome 2021

Artists make new work for the Prix de Rome 2021

13 November 2021 – 24 April 2022

From 13 November the exhibition Prix de Rome Visual Arts 2021 is on show at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Nominated artists are: Mercedes Azpilicueta, Alexis Blake, Silvia Martes and Coralie Vogelaar, who made new work for the exhibition. The Prix de Rome is the oldest Dutch award for artists under the age of 40. The prize is funded and organized by the Mondrian Fund.

An international jury made its selection from a list of 217 artists who applied for the award. The jury chose four artists with a strong practice, who are working towards an established oeuvre, reinforcing their own signature style and idiosyncratic approach. At the same time, they allow new developments and intuitive processes in their work. Based on the new work presented in the Stedelijk, the jury selected Alexis Blake as the final winner of the Prix de Rome 2021. She received 40,000 euros and the possibility to participate in a residency program.

ALEXIS BLAKE
(Pittsburg, USA, 1981, lives and works in Amsterdam)
Alexis Blake has a multidisciplinary practice that brings together visual art and performance through the use of choreography, sound, video, sculpture and printed matter. She investigates the way the body is represented in art history and beyond, which she then critically examines, disrupts and re-negotiates. The jury appreciates how her critical analysis of relevant societal themes are embodied into powerful performances. Blake develops her own performative style, characterized by clarity and minimalist aesthetics that is consistent in form yet surprising at each occurrence.

MERCEDES AZPILICUETA
(Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1981, lives and works in Amsterdam)
Mercedes Azpilicueta  has a particular interest in notions of the vulnerable or collective body, decolonial feminism and dissident voices. She brings together various characters from the past and the present, who manifest as voices, shapes, texts, traces and memories into multi-layered works. The jury is captivated by the way that Azpilicueta rewrites Latin-American and European history by integrating the old into the contemporary. She is enthusiastic about her recent work consisting of imaginative tapestries that re-interpret historical facts and combine conceptual thinking with craftmanship.

SILVIA MARTES
(Eindhoven, NL, 1985, lives and works in Amsterdam)
Silvia Martes produces experimental films that appeal to the science fiction genre. Most of the times, the narratives of her short films find their origin in an autobiographical experience or are inspired by collective human behavior and yet show an intentional detachment and distraction from the real world. The jury is enthusiastic about Martes’ combination of a powerful visual language and original form of storytelling. Her films bring together a stylized type of futuristic realism with a strong painterly quality that provides a welcome addition to the current artistic landscape of art and film.

CORALIE VOGELAAR
 (Delft, NL, 1981, lives and works in Amsterdam)
Coralie Vogelaar is an interdisciplinary artist who combines scientific disciplines such as behavioral studies and data analysis with artistic imagination. Fascinated by algorithms, she explores the tense relationship between human and machine. By collaborating with experts from various disciplines, her (video) installations and performances incorporate the application of machine logic to human bodies, and vice versa. The jury appreciates the interdisciplinary character and collaborative nature of Vogelaar’s work, and the way she addresses future visions and technological developments. The work translates underlying thematics into strong visual components.

The jury consists of Ann Demeester (Director, Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem, extraordinary Professor Art and Culture at Radboud University, Nijmegen), Amira Gad (Head of Programs, LAS Light Art Space, Berlin), Antonio Jose Guzman (visual artist, researcher, lecturer), Samuel Leuenberger (Director, SALTS, Basel) and Viviane Sassen (photographer, winner of the 2007 Prix de Rome in Visual Arts), and Eelco van der Lingen (Director Mondriaan Fund, Chair).