Visual artist Trudy Oosterhuis (1987) is the winner of the audience award of the prestigious Hendrik de Vries stipendium. She received the most online votes and wins a cash prize of 1,000 euros. She can use the money won for the development of her career. Berndt Benjamins, Alderman for Culture of the Municipality of Groningen, announced this today during Wildvang+, a follow-up to Wildvang in December 2021, which could only take place for those directly involved due to the corona measures in force at the time.
Trudy Oosterhuis grew up as a farmer's daughter in Hornhuizen. In 2017 she graduated from Academie Minerva in the direction of Fine Arts and Design in Education. Materials fascinate her immensely and are therefore central to her work, which she makes from her studio in a former cowshed in Thesinge. Oosterhuis takes materials out of context. Last summer she conducted research in the agricultural Groningen Ommeland. She took dried clay from the area, poured it in epoxy resin and turned it into a series of panels. She wants to continue with this with the stipend: “My goal is to find a form that can be placed both inside and outside the exhibition space, so that in the future I can also participate in outdoor exhibitions and make my work accessible to a wider audience. I hope this will remove the barrier for the public to visit an exhibition space.”
Jury prize
A jury nominated seven Groningen visual and literary talents for the Hendrik de Vries stipendium. 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. The jury consisted of Agnes Winter (chairman), Barend van Heusden, Bart Nijstad and Sandra van Voorst. The additional jury members for the 2021 edition were Chantalla Pleiter and Lejo Siepe. They advised the Municipal Executive to appoint two of them as winners. During Wildvang on December 11, 2021, it was announced that Leonard Witte and Ivo Smit won the Hendrik de Vries stipend for Visual Arts and Literature 2021 respectively.
Between December 11, 2021 and January 10, 2022, visitors could then vote online for all nominees for the audience award. Trudy Oosterhuis won with 49 percent of the vote.