The graduation work of Larissa Esvelt (Master Artistic Research, 2025) is on view from 26 September to 25 January as part of the Doesjenel Prijs 2025. The work is seen next to Katarina Sidorova (Fine Arts, 2016).
The Doesjenel Prize is Leiden's leading visual arts award for talent aged 35 and under. This award aims to stimulate the development of young artistic talent. The jury selected the nominated artists Larissa Esvelt, Jaasir Linger, and Katerina Sidorova from an open call. Their work will be on display in a joint exhibition at Museum De Lakenhal starting 26 September 2025. The winner will be announced on 12 December 2025, during Lakenhal Laat. This year's jury includes artist and jewelry maker Chequita Nahar, visual artist Koen Hauser, and art journalist Lieneke Hulshof. The Doesjenel Prize is made possible in part by Jong Mecenaat.
About the work of Larissa
Larissa Esvelt creates large, colorful works and installations in which ceramics and textiles play a central role, sometimes combined with everyday objects. The combination of textiles and ceramics gives her monumental sculptures a powerful expressiveness and uniqueness. Material and theme go hand in hand; the works are simultaneously robust and vulnerable. Discomfort seems to be a central theme in her work; human discomfort in relation to the environment or prevailing visual culture. For example, we see female figures that play with the clichéd image of the waiting, suspended, and passive woman. Esvelt portrays this to an extreme, giving her sculptures an absurd and strange quality. Esvelt's sculptures literally and figuratively occupy a great deal of space and are always in relation to that space. The use of materials has a detailed quality; this makes the sculptures both appealing and mysterious.
View the work of Larissa in the Graduation Catalogue.
About the work of Katarina
Katerina Sidorova explores major political themes such as surveillance, power, and control, examining how they leave lasting imprints on our lives and our environment. She transforms these themes into powerful and unique installations. Her work demonstrates an infectious creative drive. Sidorova has a rich practice. You sense the meaning of her installations, yet they simultaneously make a visual statement. She continually uses new materials, sometimes robust, sometimes very fragile, always with layered meaning. The fact that the work doesn't always seem "finished" emphasizes its questioning nature. Her presentations aren't necessarily accessible, but they are intriguing and compelling.
