Award recipients

Laureate

Nataliia Ivanova

curator, educator, and Director of the Yermilov Centre in Kharkiv Kharkiv, Ukraine

The jury has awarded Nataliia Ivanova the 2026 Igor Zabel Award for Culture and Theory in recognition of her achievements as curator, educator, and the founding director of the Yermilov Centre in Kharkiv, Ukraine (since 2012). Ivanova’s work strengthens visual art and culture in Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe by bridging regional avant-garde heritage with contemporary practices and fostering global dialogue.

Grant recipients

Tania Arcimovich

researcher, curator, and art writer; Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Erfurt Giessen, Germany / Minsk, Belarus

The jury has awarded the 2026 Igor Zabel Award Grant to Tania Arcimovich for her research and contributions to contemporary art, performance, and historical avant-garde studies in Belarus and among the Belarusian diaspora.

Octavian Esanu

art writer, curator, and educator; Associate Professor and Gallery Director, American University of Beirut Beirut, Lebanon / Tokyo, Japan

The jury has awarded the 2026 Igor Zabel Award Grant to Octavian Esanu for his art historical, curatorial, and pedagogical work connecting and analysing the artistic infrastructures and legacies of post-socialist Eastern Europe and the postcolonial Middle East.

Alona Karavai

cultural worker, curator, and art writer; co-founder and leader of Asortymentna Kimnata in Ivano-Frankivsk Ivano-Frankivsk / Kyiv, Ukraine

The jury has awarded the 2026 Igor Zabel Award Grant to Alona Karavai for her cultural work that engages with long-term societal fracturing caused by ongoing warfare, especially in Ivano-Frankivsk in Ukraine, where she leads the independent project space Asortymentna Kimnata.

Jury and nominators

2026 jury

  • Vasif Kortun

    curator, Ayvalık, Turkey

  • Kasia Redzisz

    curator and artistic director of Kanal – Centre Pompidou, Brussels

  • Sophie Thun

    artist and professor at the University of Applied Arts, Vienna

2026 nominators

  • Aleksei Borisionok

    curator, based in Vienna

  • Jakub Gawkowski

    art historian and curator, Museum of Art, Łódź

  • Flaka Haliti

    artist, based in Berlin

  • Angela Harutyunyan

    art historian, curator, and educator, based in Berlin

  • Elena Narbutaitė

    artist, Vilnius

  • Lívia Nolasco Rózsás

    curator, art historian, and educator, based in London

  • Michal Novotný

    curator and director of the Collection of Modern and Contemporary Art, National Gallery, Prague

  • Boyan Manchev

    philosopher, Sofia

  • Hana Ostan-Ožbolt-Haas

    curator and art writer, based in Vienna

  • Magda Radu

    art historian and curator, Bucharest