YGAIII: Jurjen Galema

Jurjen Galema

Jurjen Galema graduated in 2019 from the Frank Mohr Institute in Groningen with an MA in Fine Art and Design and is a part-time drag queen. Growing up in a village in Friesland meant the art world once seemed remote. He aims to build a bridge through his soft sculptures by creating worlds populated by strange figures with intriguing stories. Gender, identity, kitsch, popular culture and obsessions are some of the themes he investigates and interprets in his own unique way. 

For the YGA III programme Galema is building a work in which heaven and hell converge, with lust, gluttony and excess hilariously depicted in a world of soft sculptures presented by the artist’s ebullient alter ego. She leads viewers into this universe and seduces them into voyeurism and inward reflection.

YGA III

The YGA programme is a special joint project of NP3 and the Groninger Museum designed to supplement the selected artists’ existing creative practice. By providing vital professional support, NP3 and the Groninger Museum offer the participating artists a unique opportunity to take the next big step in their careers, to refine and deepen their work and to lift it to the next level. An important element of the programme is each artist’s development of a proposal for an exhibition of new work for the Groninger Museum. One of the three artists will be selected to realise their exhibition on the basis of their progress in the YGA programme as well as their proposal.

A partnership with Gerrit van Houten Prijs

Portrait of Jurjen Galema, photography Paraskevi Frasiola, 2021   © Courtesy Jurjen Galema