KABK Photography graduate Alex Avgud was announced winner of the Ron Mandos Photo Talent Award 2019 in Ron Mandos Best of Graduates 2019. Congratulations!
The award ceremony of the Public’s Prize as well as the Photo Talent Award took place during the finissage of the Best of Graduates 2019 exhibition on Saturday August 31 and the winners received the awards from the Dutch Minister of Education, Culture and Science, Ingrid van Engelshoven.
The work of photographer Alex Avgud is an exploration of human resistance to mechanisms of oppression. He approaches social and political issues in a manner that triggers an emotional response from the viewer. His series Exercises in Freedom is based on his personal experience:
‘I never told my parents I am gay. In the working-class outskirts of Moscow, where I grew up, homosexuality means to be suppressed. After relocating to The Netherlands, I realized being gay in the East feels a lot like being a migrant artist in the West. Both worlds push you to ‘fit in’. Every culture demands a chunk of your freedom, every society strives to grind down the misfits’.
Five KABK graduates in Ron Mandos Best of Graduates 2019
Alex Avgud, together with KABK graduates Katarina Juričić, Jamy Osinga, Elodie Vreeburg and Aliaksandra Puhachova were selected for participation in the Ron Mandos Best of Graduates 2019.
The 12th edition of the yearly exhibition brings together the work of the most promising young artists and is on view from 27 July until 31 August 2019.
