SHINJI OTANI
The 2015 Prix de Rome was awarded earlier today to Magali Reus, the young Dutch artist whose sculptures deal with the relationship of humans to their environments. Through the award, which is given biennially to a contemporary Dutch artist, Reus has won €40,000 (about $43,230).
Reus was chosen from a shortlist of four; the other nominees were Foundland, Hedwig Houben, and Christian Nyampeta. The jury—writer Pernille Albrethsen, Stedelijk Museum director Beatrix Ruf, artist Jan Pavert, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen curator Francesco Stocchi, and artist Roy Villevoye—chose Reus based on new work made during a five-month period. Her new sculptures were shown alongside art by the other finalists at the de Appel arts centre in Amsterdam.
Recently, in America, Reus’s work could be seen in a memorable show at SculptureCenter, in which she showed oversize locks that were affixed to a brick wall and made of springs and numbered pieces of plastic. Other works on view were elusive, abstract representations of street corners that were meant to show the effects of humans on their surroundings. In London, Reus is represented by The Approach, yet in America, she remains unrepresented. A solo show at the Stedelijk is being planned for next year.
“Magali Reus presented five new works reminiscent of large inflated padlocks—alienating, beguiling, and aloof at the same time,” the jury said in a report. “The jury was intrigued by the cryptic but beautiful idiosyncrasy of the objects: the references to digital reality remain fragmented and the mysterious materiality of the objects raises more questions than can be answered.”