Leonard Witte and Ivo Smit have won the prestigious Hendrik de Vries grant for Visual Arts and Literature 2021. Berndt Benjamins, Alderman for Culture of the Municipality of Groningen, announced this on Saturday 11 December. The grant is an annual incentive prize for young, professional and talented Groningen artists, intended to stimulate their artistic development. The winners will each receive a cash prize of 6,000 euros, with which they can carry out their submitted plans.
A jury nominated five talents for Visual Arts: Trudy Oosterhuis, Marnix Sixma, Davey Smand, Jessie Tam and Leonard Witte. Ivo Smit and Maartje Terpstra were nominated in the Literature category. This year the jury consists of: Agnes Winter (chairman), Barend van Heusden, Bart Nijstad, Chantalla Pleiter, Lejo Siepe and Sandra van Voorst. They advised the Municipal Executive to appoint two of them as winners. The jury says about the winners:
Leonard White (Visual Arts)
The jury finds the visual qualities of Leonard Witte very strong and very authentic. The artist pays little attention to fashions within art and continues to work tirelessly to create a universe of his own. The jury highly appreciates this idiosyncrasy and tenacity. At the same time, the variation in themes and materials means that the work does not get boring and the jury is very curious how this work will develop further. This artist has been making progress for some time and in our opinion is one of the most striking talents in the visual arts in Groningen. The jury believes that the work of this artist deserves greater appreciation and a larger stage and hopes to contribute to this by awarding this stipend.
Ivo Smit (Literature)
The work of Ivo Smit is radical, experimental and authentic. The work sharpens the reader's focus and challenges them to make connections and give meanings. Ivo's plans are compelling. The plan seems to be a prelude to a Gesamtkunstwerk, in which old and new worlds come together. The jury finds this fascinating and hopes to bring that ambition a little closer with this award. It was mainly the wild creativity and the ability to create their own universe that convinced the jury to declare this winner.
Audience Award
In addition to the grant, all nominees also have a chance to win an audience award of 1,000 euros. The winner can use the money for the development of his/her career. Until 14 January, the exhibition ‘De droom van het Kunstenaarschap’ at Kunstpunt shows earlier and recent work by all nominees. You can vote for the audience award until 11 January via the ballot box in the exhibition or digitally via kunstpuntgroningen.nl/stem. Kunstpunt is open from Wednesday to Saturday from 12:00 to 17:00.