1,668 submissions from 38 countries, 32 artists selected for the final and three equal prizes of €12,000 gross each – this is the second edition of the KAF Young Art Prize. The final exhibition, No-Clip Dwelling, curated by Natalia Barczyńska and Monika Łuszpak-Skiba, features works spanning painting, digital art and sculpture, object and installation. The exhibition explores contemporary experiences of dwelling, memory and the interpenetration of physical and virtual realities.

An International Competition and New Categories

The second edition of the KAF Young Art Prize received 1,668 submissions from 38 countries. More than half came from Poland – 868, accounting for approximately 52% of all entries. The next highest numbers of applications came from Germany (174), the United Kingdom (101), Austria (66) and Czechia (58).

This year’s edition introduced a significant change to the competition format. While the first edition was open exclusively to works in the Painting category, in 2026 the programme was expanded to include Digital Art and Sculpture, Object, Installation. This change made it possible to encompass a broader spectrum of contemporary artistic practices.

The largest number of submissions was received in the Painting category – 976, accounting for 58.5% of all applications. Sculpture, Object, Installation accounted for 538 submissions (32.3%), while Digital Art received 154 (9.2%). The jury selected 32 artists for the final: eight in Painting, seven in Digital Art and 17 in Sculpture, Object, Installation. Artists selected in the two newly introduced categories therefore make up the majority of the finalists.

No-Clip Dwelling – Between Home and the Virtual World

How do we understand home when our lives unfold simultaneously across physical and digital spaces, while memories, images and objects move between different orders of reality? No-Clip Dwelling examines these relationships, approaching dwelling not only as a physical experience but also as an emotional state shaped by memory, relationships and a sense of belonging.

The eponymous term no-clip has been borrowed from video-game vocabulary. It describes a mode that allows a player to pass through walls and other obstacles. Read alongside dwelling, meaning both inhabiting a place and lingering on something in thought, it becomes a metaphor for moving between different dimensions of experience – between matter and technology, present and past, the real and the ephemeral.

The exhibition also evokes the internet mythology of the Backrooms – a labyrinth of seemingly familiar rooms forming an unsettling space without a clear beginning or end. A similar mechanism can be found in the featured works, in which everyday objects, fragments of memory and recognisable elements of the surrounding world are transformed and stripped of their obvious points of reference. The familiar acquires new meanings while reality takes on a neo-surreal character.

From this perspective, home becomes both a physical place and a space of memory, emotional attachment and relationships. Personal histories intersect with experiences of crisis, displacement and the search for belonging, prompting reflection on transgenerational memory and the ways in which the past continues to shape the present.

Materials and the ways in which they are used also play a significant role. The artists work with textiles, waste, organic matter, industrial elements and everyday objects. Painting, sculpture, installation and digital art do not function here as separate disciplines but continually overlap. The shared exhibition space reveals relationships between works created independently of one another, without subordinating them to a single style or a rigid definition of young art.

Supporting Emerging Artistic Practices

KAF Young Art Prize is an international competition organised by Krupa Art Foundation to support artists at the beginning of their professional careers and increase the visibility of new artistic phenomena and approaches. The competition creates a platform for presenting diverse practices, encouraging experimentation and the crossing of boundaries traditionally associated with particular media.

In this year’s edition, the jury will award three equal cash prizes of €12,000 gross each.

No-Clip Dwelling presents young art as a field of continual transformation, combining materials and experiences while seeking new relationships between technology, memory and everyday life. Crossing boundaries – both physical and symbolic – becomes a point of departure for imagining other ways of inhabiting the world.

KAF Young Art Prize 2026: No-Clip Dwelling | Final Exhibition

Final Gala: 6 November 2026

Exhibition dates: 7 November 2026 – 31 January 2027

Artists: Tara Abdullah, Trin Alt, Len Bay, Élie Bolard, Seonah Chae, Šimon Chovan, Mark Cinkevich, Hyerin Eom, Thomas Garnier, Sonia Góral, Gerda Hansen, Kaja Joo, Emma Kling, Daniel Kotowski, Emmélie Lempert, Sophia Mainka, Anna Myszkowiak, Terrence Musekiwa, Alicja Pakosz, Joachim Perez, Viktor Petrov, Anna Raczyńska, Maksymilian Rzontkowski, Sana Shahmuradova Tanska, She Luyun, Darya Siamchuk, Loïs Soleil, Olga Truszkowska, Katarzyna Wyszkowska, Leyla Yenirce, Stanislav Zábrodský, Xtreme Girl (Laura Radzewicz, Lena Peplińska)

Curators: Natalia Barczyńska and Monika Łuszpak-Skiba

KAF Young Art Prize 2026 Jury:

Sylwia Krupa – Chair of the Jury, Founder and Board Member of Krupa Art Foundation
Christelle Havranek – Chief Curator, Kunsthalle Praha
Lucía García – Director, iMAL – Center for Digital Cultures and Technology, Brussels
Katarzyna Młyńczak-Sachs – President of Krupa Art Foundation
Filip Rybkowski – visual artist, awarded the Main Prize at the KAF Young Art Prize 2024
Livia Klein – independent curator based in Vienna

Preselection Committee:

Maria Bîrsan – cultural manager and curator, Director of Sandwich Gallery in Bucharest
Natalia Barczyńska – curator and art historian, Curator of Exhibitions and Artistic Events at Krupa Art Foundation
Dominika Kluszczyk – media art curator, Co-Director of WRO Art Center and member of IP Group
Monika Łuszpak-Skiba – Curator of Exhibitions and Artistic Events at Krupa Art Foundation

KAF Young Art Prize 2026 in Numbers

• 1,668 submissions from 38 countries
• 32 artists in the final
• 3 competition categories
• 3 equal prizes of €12,000 gross each

Media patrtners: Polityka, Mint Magazine, Pismo, Radio Wrocław, Radio RAM

Competition partners: GRID ArtHub, iMAL, MGS Częstochowa, Petrohradská kolektiv, Honorary Consul of the Republic of Chile in Wrocław, Sobota Jachira Law Firm, Prize by Radisson, Wroclaw Sky Tower