Selma Selman wins 12th edition of ABN AMRO Art Award

Transformation and collaboration

The jury admires Selman’s unique and fearless attitude and the manner in which she takes her experiences as a woman who grew up in a Roma family during and after the Bosnian War and translates them into current and universal themes. Coming from a family of scrap dealers, she has a keen awareness of the importance of recycling and transformation. The jury enthusiastically admires the way in which she makes that transformation the very essence of her work, raising questions about economic structures, minorities and prejudices. This is evident, for instance, in her Paintings on Metal, an ongoing series of works involving scrap metal that she paints on, giving these rugged objects an unexpectedly sensitive and often surrealistic twist. In another example, she elevates the work of scrap dealers into performances in which she addresses topics such as discrepancies within economic and social valuations of labour and art.

Activism, female emancipation and gold

The jury also commends Selman’s activist approach and the way in which she uses her work to question and improve the position of women and girls from the Roma community. The strength and independence of women in a patriarchal society is a central theme of her work time and time again. Furthermore, the jury is impressed by the way she manages to link her recently developed method for extracting gold from computer circuit boards to the independence of women from her community. Selman uses the foundation she created, Get The Heck To School, to promote better education for girls, including girls in her home town of Bihać, so that a different life path from the standard one set out for them might become possible. The fact that Selman considers this foundation integral to her artistic work is appreciated by the jury as characteristic of her practice.

Danila Cahen, curator of the ABN AMRO Art Collection and member of the ABN AMRO Art Award jury: “In the jury’s view, Selma Selman is an inspiring artist with a distinct and unique body of work. It is both powerful and vulnerable. Furthermore, the social impact of her work makes us think about discrimination, prejudices and human rights.”

While making her mark in recent years with significant exhibitions abroad, Selma Selman remains relatively unknown to a wider Dutch audience. The jury believes her work deserves more attention in the Netherlands and deems this an excellent moment to support her in that endeavour. This is why, as part of the ABN AMRO Art Award, Selma Selman will be invited to hold a solo exhibition at Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam in late January 2025.

Rein Wolfs, Director of Stedelijk Museum: “Selma Selman’s work is unique due to her ability to transform personal experiences and recycled scrap metal into powerful art combined with incredibly strong performances that challenge economic and social structures and promote female emancipation. We are therefore proud to offer the 12th winner of the Art Award a platform at Stedelijk Museum.”

The full jury report as well as high res imagery can be found here.

Selma Selman

Selma Selman (1991) was born in Bosnia and Herzegovina and lives and works in New York, Amsterdam and Bihać. She graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts from the University of Banja Luka (BA), and a Master’s degree in Visual and Performing Arts from the University of Syracuse (NY), followed subsequently by a residency at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam. Selman’s work has been displayed in international solo and group exhibitions in places including the Röda Sten Konsthall, Gothenburg (2024); Gropius Bau, Berlin (2023); Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin (2023); Documenta 15, Kassel (2022); Manifesta 14, Pristina (2022); Fries Museum, Leeuwarden, NL (2022) and MO Museum Vilnius, Vilnius (2022). Her exhibition in the Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt opened recently.Selma Selman is the founder of Get The Heck To School, an organisation committed to the emancipation of Roma girls across the world, who encounter social exclusion and poverty.

About the ABN AMRO Art Award’s jury

This year, the members of the jury for the 12th edition of the ABN AMRO Art Award were Christa Beaufort (Global Sustainability Manager, ABN AMRO), Danila Cahen (curator of ABN AMRO Art Collection), Natasja Kensmil (visual artist), Emily Pethick (Director of Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten, Amsterdam) and Rein Wolfs (Director of Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam).

About the ABN AMRO Art Award

The ABN AMRO Art Award has been supporting artists in their development since 2004 and presents their work to the largest possible audience. The Award is being presented for the 12th time; from this edition onwards it will focus on promising female talent in the Netherlands. This signifies the bank’s and the Stedelijk Museum’s shared mission of promoting equality and inclusion in the art sector. Through the Award, ABN AMRO wants to provide artists support to boost their development, offering them a platform to reach as wide an audience as possible and to facilitate beginnings: to serve as a catalyst towards experimentation, innovation, and new steps in their career. With a solo exhibition at Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and at the ABN AMRO Art Space, along with a publication and a monetary award. Furthermore, work by the laureate is acquired for the ABN AMRO Art Collection.

For more information about the new direction of the ABN AMRO Art Award, please visit: https://www.abnamro.com/nl/nieuws/winnaar-12e-editie-abn-amro-kunstprijs-krijgt-tentoonstelling-stedelijk

For more information about previous winners of the ABN AMRO Art Award, please visit: https://art-heritageabnamro.nl/kunstcollectie/abn-amro-kunstprijs