PinchukArtCentre Prize 2025

PinchukArtCentre Announces 20 Nominees for the PinchukArtCentre Prize 2025

PinchukArtCentre announces the artists shortlisted for the 8th edition of the PinchukArtCentre Prize, a nationwide prize in contemporary art for young Ukrainian artists aged 35 or younger. The shortlist has been formed by the selection committee based on the results of the selection from more than 900 applications submitted by Ukrainian artists. 

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 Nominees

The shortlist of the PinchukArtCentre Prize 2025 includes: 

• Mykhailo Alekseenko (34, Kyiv) 
• Kateryna Aliinyk (25, Kyiv/Luhansk) 
• Yuriy Bolsa (27, Chervonohrad) 
• Vasyl Dmytryk (32, Ivano-Frankivsk/Odesa) 
• Maksym Khodak (23, Vienna/Kyiv/Bila Tserkva) 
• Yevhen Korshunov (35, Brovary/Kyiv) 
• Kateryna Lysovenko (34, Kyiv/Vienna) 
• Krystyna Melnyk (30, Kyiv/Melitopol) 
• Daria Molokoiedova (22, Kramatorsk/Kyiv) 
• Vlad Plisetskiy (25, Kyiv) 
• Andrii Rachynskyi (34, Kharkiv) 
• Anton Saenko (34, Sumy/Kyiv) 
• Anton Shebetko (34, Kyiv/Amsterdam)
• Zhenia Stepanenko (28, Kyiv/Berlin)
• Vasyl Tkachenko (Lyakh) (29, Mariupol)
• Illia Todurkin (23, Mariupol/Kyiv)
• Tamara Turliun (29, Dnipro/Kyiv)
• Lesia Vasylchenko (34, Kyiv/Oslo)
• Yuri Yefanov (34, Gurzuf)
• collective Variable Name (Valerie Karpan (Kyiv) and Maryna Marynychenko (Kyiv/Zaporizhzhia))

This year, a special recognition outside the competition will honour the memory of Veronika Kozhushko — an artist from Kharkiv who applied for the PinchukArtCentre Prize but tragically died on August 30 as a result of a Russian missile strike on the city's civilian infrastructure.

The selection committee of the PinchukArtCentre Prize 2025 commented on the discussion and decision-making process: 

“This year’s selection process took place under extreme circumstances caused by Russia’s war against Ukraine and its sovereignty and culture. As members of the selection committee, we see it as our duty to support Ukrainian artists who, despite all the challenges, continue their artistic work residing in Ukraine or abroad. It was important for us to include in the nomination artists whose works address significant issues of our time to ensure that the Prize serves as a meaningful step in the continuous development of their artistic practice. 

With a special out-of-competition selection, we would like to honour the memory of Veronika Kozhushko, a young artist from Kharkiv who had applied to participate in the PinchukArtCentre Prize and was brutally killed by a Russian missile strike over residential and communal areas in Kharkiv on August 30. We deeply regret this unbearable tragedy and sympathize with her family and loved ones, as well as with the entire artistic community, which has suffered a profound loss. We believe it is essential to pay respect and tribute to all artists and cultural workers whose lives have been taken by the Russian war since 2014. Veronika is one of them.”

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Selection Committee

The Selection Committee members: 

• Zhanna Kadyrova — Artist, Laureate of the PinchukArtCentre Prize (2013); Special Prize winner of the Future Generation Art Prize (2014); 
• Bozhena Pelenska — Program and Executive Director of Jam Factory, Cultural Manager;
• Kateryna Semenyuk — Сurator and Cultural Manager, co-founder of the memory culture platform Past/Future/Art;
• Serge Klymko — Сurator, Cultural Manager, Researcher and Executive Director of the Kyiv Biennial;
• Oleksandra Pogrebnyak — Curator of the PinchukArtCentre.

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Jury

This year's jury members are:

• Carina Bukuts — Curator and writer, сurator at Portikus, Frankfurt am Main;
• Björn Geldhof — Artistic Director at the PinchukArtCentre, Kyiv;
• Alevtina Kakhidze — Artist, laureate of the Kazimir Malevich Award (2008) and Women in Arts Award (2023);
• Lesia Khomenko — Artist, сo-founder and member of R.E.P. group, and curatorial group Hudrada;
• Marta Czyź — Art historian, independent curator, critic, сurator of the Polish Pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennale in 2024.

Shortlisted artists will be commissioned to create the new works on view in exhibitions at the PinchukArtCentre in Kyiv in February 2025. The show of the PinchukArtCentre Prize 2025 will be curated by Oleksandra Pogrebnyak, curator of the PinchukArtCentre. 

The shortlisted artists will be invited to create works for the exhibition at the PinchukArtCentre in 2025. The winners of the Prize will be announced at the award ceremony in the second quarter of 2025. The Main Prize of UAH 400 000 and two Special Prizes equal to UAH 100 000 each will be awarded by the international jury. The winners will also receive financial support for internships, further education, residences or new production. A Public Choice winner will be determined by votes of the visitors attending the exhibition of the shortlisted artists and will be awarded UAH 40 000. 

The winner of the Main Prize will be automatically included in the shortlist of the Future Generation Art Prize 2026, an international art prize for young artists.