opening Dolf Henkes Prize 2016 (photo: Aad Hogendoorn)

Award ceremony

09/02/2017
TENT

Dolf Henkes Price 2016


The artists Daan Botlek, Rana Hamadeh, Rory Pilgrim and Katarina Zdjelar have been nominated for the Dolf Henkes Prize 2016. The prize is awarded every two years by the Henkes Foundation to an iconic Rotterdam artist. The jury, led by collector Alexander Ramselaar, nominated the artists who could win an amount of 12.000 euros. The exhibition with the work of the nominees will take place in TENT from Thursday 15 December 2016 to 26 February 2017.

On Thursday 9 February at 19, the winner will be announced in TENT.

At the request of the Rotterdam artist Dolf Henkes (1903-1989), part of his legacy is intended for this incentive prize for artists who are just as defining for the city of Rotterdam as the name giver himself. On the initiative of the Henkes Foundation, the Dolf Henkes Prize has been awarded since 2004 to visual artists who put Rotterdam art on the map. Previous winners were Jeroen Eisinga, Erik van Lieshout, Melvin Moti, Lara Almarcegui, Gyz La Rivière and Lidwien van de Ven: all respected and internationally oriented artists.

The jury, consisting of Alexander Ramselaar (art collector), Lidwien van de Ven (artist and winner of the Dolf Henkes Prize 2014), David Bade (artist and co-founder Instituto Buena Bista on Curaçao), Noor Mertens (curator) and Niels Post (artist and co-founder Trend Management), agreed on the nominees:

Daan Botlek

“Daan Botlek is an artist who, over the past ten years, has turned out to be able to develop his own oeuvre outside the beaten path of the art world, thereby attracting a large audience worldwide. From half an A4 sheet drawn in a book to a towering mural in India, he reports on a universe in which human figures play with the rules of geometry and the laws of physics. ” Daan Botlek (1977, Vlaardingen) studied Illustration at the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam. He is known for his large murals in Rotterdam and abroad, from Leipzig to Bangkok. He also regularly works on illustration assignments for Wired and Nike, among others.

Rory Pilgrim

“Social involvement and communication are central to Rory Pilgrim's work. For his projects he works closely with a variety of people, both professionals and amateurs, children and the elderly, locally and internationally. By entering into these collaborations, Pilgrim creates a place for dialogue with his work, an environment in which participants can speak up frankly. He translates these meetings and conversations into work on paper, posters with texts, video works, compositions and performances. ”
Rory Pilgrim (1988, Bristol, Great Britain) studied at Chelsea College of Art & Design in London and De Ateliers in Amsterdam. He recently exhibited in Flat Time House in London and the 5th Ghuangzhou Triennial. In Rotterdam, work by Pilgrim was shown at the Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art as winner of the CoCA Commission in 2014, and last summer in Project Rotterdam at Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen.

Rana Hamadeh

Rana Hamadeh's oeuvre is the result of extensive research into specific concepts and terms, using the world of theories as fiction. Combining performances, cartographic work, stage images with sound and text, as well as written projects and conversations, her work unfolds as a network of associations that brings together a diversity of histories, geographic places, philosophies and fictional stories. In 2011, she began an ongoing project called Alien Encounters, as an overarching foundation for a series of works that thoroughly investigate state-sponsored forms of violence and the legal devices that make it possible. Hamadeh graduated from the Dutch Art Institute in 2009. She has exhibited at the Institute of Modern Art (Brisbane, 2016); The Showroom (London, 2016); Western Front (Vancouver, 2015); Gallery TPW (Toronto, 2015) and Kiosk (Ghent, 2014).

Katarina Zdjelar

Katarina Zdjelar impresses with her oeuvre in which themes such as identity, authority and community are central. With the individual as a starting point, she knows how to expose social issues and changes in society in her videos, sound works and books. Language is a recurring element that she uses on several layers at the same time. She builds on a consistent oeuvre in which she stays true to her principles, medium and themes in an often catchy, penetrating visual language. Her work does not immediately reveal itself: it challenges the viewer to take a second look, take a closer look and reflect. ” Katarina Zdjelar (1979, Belgrade, Serbia) studied Fine Art at the Piet Zwart Institute in Rotterdam. Her work has been shown in ICA London, Ellen de Bruijne Projects in Amsterdam, Casco in Utrecht and TENT Rotterdam.

The Dolf Henkes Prize is an initiative of Stichting Henkes. Among other things, the foundation has set itself a favorable Rotterdam art climate. The Dolf Henkes Prize 2016 is made possible in part by the Henkes Foundation, the Netherlands Institute for Cultural Heritage, the Rotterdam Visual Arts Center, the Foundation for the Promotion of Popular Power, the G.Ph.Verhagen Foundation and STOER.