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Increasing pressure on art talent: 22 new creators to keep a close eye on.

For the past few weeks, academies across the country have been celebrating: a new batch of visual artists graduated and showed themselves to the world. Besides parents, grandparents and a few friends, a lot of art professionals descend on such a graduation presentation. Scouts, in the form of other artists, press, curators, collectors and gallery owners. All these people especially hope not to miss the new discovery and therefore try to be there as early as possible. In some cases, that is even before the artist graduates from the academy. If the talent does not develop as expected, it is a pity, but otherwise you are the discoverer. We join in for a moment, and sought out 22.

So there is increasing pressure on the newly graduated artist. Pressure that does not come at the right time for everyone. Some need another period to figure out what they want. Most artists who have just graduated are still younger than Vincent van Gogh, who only started painting around the age of 27. You may also wonder if a four-year crash course is enough to show yourself to the world as a mature artist.

[Tweet "On average, 500 new artists showcase themselves to the outside world for the first time every year. "]

Despite all these reservations, it must be said that many young artists often manage to produce convincing works in that short time. Even though such an education is short, after four years many know very well what they are doing and what they want. Some discover by the time they graduate that they do not aspire to a career as an artist, while others see opportunities for further development.

On average, 500 new artists show themselves to the outside world for the first time every year. Of those 500, only a handful end up making a real living from being an artist. That is not a pretty prospect but it is reality.

Like many of the scouts, we also make a list of what graduated this year, the cream of the crop of 2014's lightings throughout the Netherlands, the ones we hope to see a lot more of in the future.

ABKM at Maastricht;

Mike Moonen
Mike Moonen

 

Vera Gulkers
Vera Gulkers

AKI/ArtEZ from Enschede

Hannes Nienhuser
Hannes Nienhuser

AKV Den Bosch;

Koes Staassen
Koes Staassen

 

?
Margriet Craens

ArtEZ from Arnhem;

Mariana Murta
Mariana Murta

 

Saskia Blokzijl
Saskia Blokzijl

Fontys Tilburg;

Robin Gerris
Robin Gerris

Groningen-based Frank Mohr Institute;

Huub Vlemmings
Huub Vlemmings

HKU from Utrecht;

Danielle Hoogendoorn
Danielle Hoogendoorn

 

Janine van Oene
Janine van Oene

 

Tim Hollander
Tim Hollander

KABK from The Hague;

Vincent Both
Vincent Both

 

Steef Crombach
Steef Crombach

 

Jet Smits
Jet Smits

Minerva academy Groningen;

Mathilde van Wijnen
Mathilde van Wijnen

 

Rose Cornelius
Rose Cornelius

From the Rietveld of Amsterdam;

Charlott Weise
Charlott Weise

 

Kim Forni
Kim Forni

 

Rutger van der Tas
Rutger van der Tas

From Sint Joost Breda;

Veerle Kop
Veerle Kop

The Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam;

Dirk Hardy
Dirk Hardy

Of course, this too is just a selection at the time and who knows, we may never hear from some now....

Niek Hendrix

Niek Hendrix is a contemporary visual artist and writer/founder of the web magazine Lost Painters. He is also regularly asked as curator, guest lecturer, speaker on art and is one of the co-founders of the art initiative Park in Tilburg.View Author posts

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