Future Generation Art Prize 2021

The PinchukArtCentre presents an exhibition of the 21 shortlisted artists for the sixth edition of the Future Generation Art Prize. Running from September 25, 2021 to February 27, 2022, the show gives a remarkable view on the artistic vision from the next generation of artists. Established by the Victor Pinchuk Foundation in 2009, the Future Generation Art Prize is a biannual global contemporary art prize to discover, recognize and give long-term support to a future generation of artists all over the world. 

Featuring new works from all artists, the exhibition explores the world we live in today and how past experiences compel us to face a more inclusive future. Geopolitics is a recurring theme, with an emphasis on the global flows of labour, capital, and technology; the works reflect upon the unhealed scars of colonisation, ongoing conflicts, and the gradual exhaustion of natural resources. This close relationship to the natural world introduces a line of spiritualism within the exhibition that suggests the artist’s intangible or physical practice as a tool to care for each other’s communities. The interhuman relations become a crucial point for a whole number of projects, including the fragile intimacy and tension of queer identity.  

The shortlist includes: Alex Baczynski-Jenkins (UK), Wendimagegn Belete (Ethiopia), Minia Biabiany (Guadeloupe), Aziz Hazara (Afghanistan), Ho Rui An (Singapore), Agata Ingarden (Poland), Rindon Johnson (US), Bronwyn Katz (South Africa), Lap-See Lam (Sweden), Mire Lee (South Korea), Paul Maheke (France), Lindsey Mendick (UK), Henrike Naumann (Germany), Pedro Neves Marques (Portugal), Frida Orupabo (Norway), Andres Pereira Paz (Bolivia), Teresa Solar (Spain), Trevor Yeung (China), and artist collectives Calla Henkel & Max Pitegoff (US), Yarema Malashchuk and Roman Khimei (Ukraine), and Hannah Quinlan & Rosie Hastings (UK). 

Curator: Björn Geldhof, artistic director of the PinchukArtCentre. Assistant curators: Oleksandra Pogrebnyak and Daria Shevtsova.

The collective Yarema Malashchuk and Roman Khimei is included to the shortlist as the winner of the PinchukArtCentre Prize 2020—a national contemporary art prize awarded to young Ukrainian artists up to the age of 35. 

From the shortlisted artists, the jury determines the winners of the main prize and special prizes during the Future Generation Art Prize exhibition at the PinchukArtCentre, Kyiv. Prizes are awarded at a ceremony in December 2021. 

The jury includes: Lauren Cornell, Director of the Graduate Program and Chief Curator at the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College; Jacopo Crivelli Visconti, Curator of the 34th edition of the Bienal de São Paulo; Elvira Dyangani Ose, Director of The Showroom, London; Bjorn Geldhof, Artistic Director, PinchukArtCentre; Shilpa Gupta, Artist; Ralph Rugoff, Director of the Hayward Gallery and Artistic Director of the 58th Venice Biennale of Art; Eugene Tan, Director of the National Gallery Singapore and the Singapore Art Museum.

The main prize winner receives 100,000 USD split between a 60,000 USD cash prize and a 40,000 USD investment in their practice. A further 20,000 USD is awarded as a special prize/s between up to five artists at the discretion of the jury for supporting projects that develop their artistic practice. 

A major contribution to the open participation of younger artists in the dynamic cultural development of societies in global transition, the Prize has supported the artistic development and production of new works of over 120 artists in exhibitions at the PinchukArtCentre in Kyiv and the Venice Biennale. 

The Future Generation Art Prize is widely acknowledged as a springboard for emerging talent. Lynette Yiadom Boakye won the Prize in 2012, before going on to be shortlisted for the Turner Prize and a highly successful solo show at the Serpentine Gallery in London in 2015. The winner of the first edition of the Prize, Cinthia Marcelle, represented Brazil at the 57th International Art Exhibition in 2017. Previous main prize winners also include Dineo Seshee Bopape, winning in 2017, who represented South Africa at the 58th International Art Exhibition in 2019. See past winners of the prize here.