Winners Academy prizes and Noorderlicht award announced

This morning, no fewer than five graduates of Minerva Art Academy were awarded prizes ranging from €500 to €1,500 for their work.

The winner of the Award for Fine Art is: Isabela Gay & Magnus König, they were nominated separately but worked together on their work Rabbit in the Attic, hence the award for both of them. What particularly struck the judges was the beauty of being “not finished”. Not as a shortcoming, but rather as a strength. This unfinished state opens up the space for imagination, invites thinking along, and lets the viewer take their own steps into the story. The collaboration between Isabela and Magnus testifies to a shared artistic vision in which a love for the material, a passion for experimentation and an infectious pleasure in making are palpable.

The winner of the Award for Design is: Gijs Hennen. With his installation ROTO P1, Gijs managed to surprise and amaze the jury. The work, constructed from existing appliances and technical elements, is an impressive mix of form, function and imagination. Gijs combines industrial materials with a distinct aesthetic approach, making his work feel both raw and refined at the same time. The jury appreciated not only the technical craftsmanship and innovative approach, but also the vision and tenacity with which Gijs brings his ideas to life. ‘Why do simple, if it can also be complex and challenging?’ seems to be his motto - and that makes him a maker to keep an eye on.

The Minerva Award for Research in art/design goes to Lila Veloo, for her thesis we ran until the light became unbearable. She examines the agency of non-human beings and the role of fiction in knowledge formation. According to the jury, her thesis combines a playful and poetic style with rigorous academic references, showing that she writes at master's level. The work immersively explores ecological entanglements and critiques anthropocentrism, science and capitalism while arguing for empathy and equality between human and non-human life. The physical form - a reflection of the length and colour of a salmon, a key symbol in the project - adds a poetic layer that deepens the narrative.

See all nominees here 

Noorderlicht Award 

The Noorderlicht Award recognises and celebrates groundbreaking lens-based media that brings together art, society and technology, while encouraging innovation and diversity in our ever-changing world. The jury consists of Roosje Klap (director Noorderlicht) and Rosa Wevers (guest curator Noorderlicht).
 
The winner of the Noorderlicht Award is: Viktoria Stefanova. With her graduation project Lost in Two Eras, Viktoria explores how we continue to yearn for the simplicity and authenticity of the past, while being fully immersed in a fast-paced, digital reality. Her work invites us to live within this contradiction, without choosing. The jury called the work ‘understatedly powerful, conceptually clear, and instinctively right on target.’ The work Lost in Two Eras will be on show during the Noorderlicht Biennial Machine Entanglements, from 12 July to 7 September 2025 at various locations in the northern Netherlands.

Whilst Iris van Kalsbeek was not among the official list of nominees, the jury felt called to honour her work after all. Her installation The Land Where Animals Kiss, presented at the Niemeyer Factory, is an experimental erotic film in which sexuality and nature are woven into an ecosystem of desire. The jury praised the ‘poetic layering and sensual power’ of the work, which questions the taboo on female sexuality and argues for slower, deeper contact in a world full of digital stimuli.

Besides prizes, there are more successes to celebrate

In collaboration with various partners, there are more successes to celebrate during the Graduation Show. This year, for instance, the Thomassen à Thuessink Art Society of the UMCG and Art Matters UMCG will again, as part of the Jonge Makers Stimulering Aankoop, purchase a work by one of the graduating students to complement the UMCG's art collection. This year it is a work by Bohyeon Hwang. She graduated with the master's degree in Painting at the Frank Mohr Institute.

New is a collaboration with theatre festival Jonge Harten. They too will select a work by one of the students to exhibit during the festival in November in the city. The announcement of this work will follow on Thursday, on the last day of the Graduation Show.

About the Academy Awards

Each year, graduates from the four bachelor programmes are nominated for the four Minerva Academy Awards. For the programmes Fine Art (Award for Fine Art), Design (Award for Design) and Teacher of Fine Art and Design (Art Education Award), one prize of €1,500 each will be made available. Artistic research is rewarded with a research prize (Award for Research in art/design) of €500.

There is also a Noorderlicht Award in cooperation with Noorderlicht, the platform for photography and lens-based media. The winner receives €1,000 euros and may realise a work in an exhibition at Noorderlicht. The awards were presented during the Graduation Show of Minerva Art Academy, which can be visited at various locations in Groningen until Thursday 19 June.

Jury

The jury of the three training awards consists of: Josine Sibum Siderius (Head of Audience and Presentations Oyfo Techniekmuseum), Priscilla N. Motta (Lecturer in Visual Education & Cultural and Artistic Training and Cultural Coordinator Werkman VMBO), Tammo Schuringa (Artist). And the research prize is awarded by: Wendy Gers (professor Art & Sustainability Academy Minerva), Linde Ex (Lecturer Frank Mohr Institute, artist and PhD candidate). Director Dorothea van der Meulen is jury chair for the four Academy Minerva Awards.