Meet the Nominees: Maker behind the Maker award

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The Maker Behind the Maker Award is an initiative of Kunstinstituut Melly in collaboration with the Mondriaan Fund. It recognizes a person or group working in the Netherlands who, through their impeccable craftsmanship and collaborative support, has helped a visual artist realize their work to its fullest potential.

Visual artists with more than five years of experience creating artworks and carrying out projects were invited through an open call to nominate one or more individuals for this award.

The Maker Behind the Maker Award specifically honors the skilled craftspeople, fabricators, and producers whose work brings artistic visions to life. From constructing large-scale installations to designing custom instruments and experimenting with materials, these professionals often operate behind the scenes, yet their expertise and innovation are essential to contemporary art. The award carries a prize of €25,000, made possible through the generous support of the Mondriaan Fund and Stichting Stokroos.

Other Award Categories

In addition to the Maker Behind the Maker Award, The MELLYs include two other categories which also carry a prize of €25,000 each:

Behind the Lens Award (formerly the Berry Koedam Award)

Recognizing photographers and documenters who expand how we see and remember art.

Visionary 010 Award

Highlighting Rotterdam-based cultural leaders whose initiatives shape the city’s creative life.

Meet the Nominees: Maker Behind the Maker Award

The 2025 nominees for the Maker Behind the Maker Award reveal the breadth and depth of craft, experimentation, and technical artistry that sustain today’s cultural landscape. From Egberth Thomas (InnaVisions), whose visual and sonic explorations connect music, space, and community, to Kees Reedijk, who has spent decades inventing electronic and software solutions for artists’ most daring ideas, these nominees embody the spirit of collaboration and ingenuity.

Albert Seubring brings a lifetime of glassmaking mastery, safeguarding endangered knowledge through his glass-cutting studio, while Ivo van Stiphout has shaped generations of media artists through his dual practice as maker, teacher, and collaborator. Victoria Zynwala transforms hair design into an act of rebellion and identity, weaving together her lived experience as a trans woman and her Eastern European heritage into a bold visual language.

From the innovative glass research of Van Tetterode Studio, realized in collaboration with leading artists and architects, to Clim Schots, whose wood sculptures and restorations carry forward the exacting tradition of classical carving, the nominees reflect a dedication to material, technique, and heritage. Oded Rimon merges sculpture, engineering, and collaboration into works that span public space, theatre, and film, while Nell Donkers, as custodian of de Appel’s archive, turns preservation into an act of connection and artistic renewal.

Adding a contemporary, research-driven perspective, Hannah Rose Whittle, a ceramics artist and researcher based in Amsterdam, investigates collaborative processes, regenerative material practices, and collective knowledge-sharing. As co-founder of Vuur Collective, she develops circular material strategies while exploring alternatives to extracted raw materials, bringing both experimentation and sustainability to her craft.

Completing the list are Niels de Bakker, who builds sound-driven machines and image-making installations, Maya Berkhof, who transforms textiles into monumental sculptural forms while supporting other artists’ visions, and Sotiris de Wit, a material innovator whose Rotterdam-based workshop has become an international hub for experimentation, sustainability, and the translation of ideas into reality.

Together, these nominees embody the essence of the Maker Behind the Maker Award: the unseen yet indispensable artistry that empowers others to create, while forging new pathways for craft, knowledge, and imagination.

Egberth Thomas (InnaVisions)

InnaVisions is a self-taught visual artist and sonic selector. He began creating visuals for Da Circle of Sole, an influential underground club night in Rotterdam, which he founded in the early 2000s. He develops his creative perception of space and time primarily at night, when abstraction and a sense of connectivity are heightened through music. Influenced by Sun Ra, Alice Coltrane, and Herbie Hancock, InnaVisions collaborates with Afaina de Jong for museums and art institutions including Metro 54, Framer Framed, TENT Rotterdam, the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Storefront for Art and Architecture in New York, and the Venice Architecture Biennale

Kees Reedijk

Kees Reedijk’s passion for electronics began in childhood, inspired by his creative father. He studied electrical engineering and has worked at television studios in Hilversum and the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten in Amsterdam. For over 20 years, he has been a freelance collaborator for artists, designing electronics and software for a wide range of creative projects, integrating sensors, motors, sound, video, and light.

Albert Seubring

Albert Seubring began working as a relief engraver at De Vereenigde Nederlandsche Glasfabrieken in 1989, later joining Royal Leerdam Crystal as a glass engraver and designer. In 2006 he became master cutter and head of finishing. In 2011, he founded his own studio, creating glass art and design. Since 2020, he has been focused on preserving and passing on his craft through collaboration with young makers. His company, VOF Glasslijperij, is now a cornerstone of the tradition.

Ivo van Stiphout

Ivo van Stiphout graduated in AudioVisual Arts from the Rietveld Academy in 1987. He began as an artist and editor at Montevideo (later NIMK) and worked as technical coordinator for internationally traveling media art exhibitions. Since 1995, he has been head and technical instructor at the Sandberg Institute Medialab in Amsterdam. Through his studio Videoartlab, he collaborates with artists and institutions worldwide, including Fiona Tan and Huis Marseille.

Victoria Zynwala

Victoria Zynwala is a self-taught maker focusing on hair design, exploring gender, performativity, and non-conformity through her work. As a trans woman from Eastern Europe, her work is informed by lived experience, combining hyper-femininity, glamour, and sex appeal with elements of punk and gore to create a unique visual language.

Van Tetterode Glass Studio

Van Tetterode conducts extensive research into glass, realizing artist and designer concepts while maintaining their handwriting and adding innovation. The studio has collaborated with Najla El-Zain, Boris de Beijer, Koos Buster, Isabelle Andriessen, Irene Kopelman, Studio Wieki Somers, Atelier van Lieshout, Ane Graff, Civic Architects, Anne Holtrop, and West 8, in execution, co-design, and their own designs.

Clim Schots

Clim Schots is a classical wood sculptor and owner of Atelier Art-Beid in Dordrecht. He creates busts, sculptures, and ornaments using traditional methods, without sandpaper, employing a three-point compass for precision. Trained at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, he also restores monumental works. He is a member of the Art Restorers Association (ARA) and ERM-registered.

Oded Rimon

Oded Rimon is a visual artist in Amsterdam working across public sculpture, installations, and film. Formerly part of the ZIK performance collective, he now focuses on collaborations, research, and development, combining mechanical engineering and material expertise. He teaches at SVT, the Rietveld Academie, and collaborates with artists at the Rijksakademie. His work has been presented at Venice and Istanbul Biennales, Yorkshire Sculpture International, Kunsthalle Münster, Haus Konstruktiv, Kunstinstituut Melly, and Stedelijk Museum.

Nell Donkers

Since 2002, Nell Donkers has curated the archive of de Appel in Amsterdam, safeguarding its memory and connecting artists, researchers, and audiences. She has modernized the archive digitally and initiated publications such as The Remote Archivist, fostering exploration of archiving, bookmaking, and storytelling.

Niels de Bakker

Niels de Bakker is a Dutch inventor-artist creating installations and machines that generate sound and image. He studied Sonology at the Royal Conservatory and completed a master at the ArtScience Interfaculty, The Hague. His work explores visual creation through auditory approaches.

Maya Berkhof

Before becoming an artist, Maya Berkhof worked as a seamstress in the textile industry, developing a sharp eye for detail and structure. Her work transforms industrial fabrics like tarpaulin into sculptural forms, weaving, knotting, and braiding them into large, immersive installations. Maya magnifies intimate hand movements into monumental works, exploring materiality, space, and the poetic potential of labor-intensive processes. In addition to her own practice, she collaborates with other artists, supporting projects ranging from costumes to large-scale textile installations, combining technical skill with aesthetic sensitivity.

Hannah Rose Whittle

Hannah Rose Whittle is an artist and researcher specializing in ceramics. With over a decade of experience in both ceramic practice and supporting artistic production, she focuses on collaborative processes, material agency, regenerative approaches to making, and collective knowledge-sharing as a way to build a common language. Based in Amsterdam, she was the 2024 Tech Fellow in Ceramics at the Rijksakademie, where she explored alternatives to extracted raw materials, investigating the potential of local and secondary resources. She is also the co-founder of Vuur Collective, a shared ceramics studio dedicated to circular material practices. Hannah has participated in international programs such as Ashkal Alwan’s Home Workspace Programme (Lebanon), Guldagergaard International Ceramic Research Centre (Denmark), and the British Ceramics Biennial (UK). She studied Fine Art Ceramics at Nagoya University of Arts (Japan).

Sotiris De Wit

Sotiris De Wit is an inventor-artist and master craftsman who bridges concept and execution. He graduated from the Design Academy Eindhoven and founded S.T.R.S, a workshop and collective of skilled makers.He is known for realizing challenging designs, including Sabine Marcelis’ Candy Cube, and collaborates with international artists and designers such as Martin Rusak, Hans Op De Beeck, and Daniel Arsham. His work combines technical mastery, material intuition, and innovation, exploring sustainability and new materials, making S.T.R.S a leading hub for experimental design.