Lotti Brockmann and Valentino Skarwan receive the Kunsthalle Wien Preis 2026

Lotti Brockmann (Academy of Fine Arts Vienna) and Valentino Skarwan (University of Applied Arts Vienna) will hold a joint exhibition at Kunsthalle Wien Karlsplatz in December 2026.

The Kunsthalle Wien Preis [Kunsthalle Wien Prize] seeks to support emerging artists living and working in Vienna and to promote discourse on contemporary art via an annual collaboration with Vienna’s two renowned art universities. Jointly organised by Kunsthalle Wien together with the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and the University of Applied Arts Vienna, it is awarded annually by a jury of experts to a graduate of each of the universities. Now in its 23rd year, the prize is intended to support recent graduates, building a bridge between academic study and professional practice, while bringing the work of these artists to a broader public. 

The selected artists receive a joint exhibition and publication with commissioned texts as well as a prize of € 3,000 each, sponsored by Kunsttrans and smc Steirer Mika & Comp. 

For this year’s prize, the jury reviewed diploma projects from the Institute of Fine Arts at the Academy and from the various departments concerned with visual and media art at the Angewandte. Over 100 graduates from the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and the University of Applied Arts Vienna submitted their work for consideration. Two artists are selected to hold a joint exhibition at Kunsthalle Wien Karlsplatz opening in December 2026:
Lotti Brockmann studied Art and Space | Spatial Strategies and Sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and was awarded the Kunsthalle Wien Preis for her performance and installation Ten Agents of Deterioration (2026). Guided by the proposition ‘form follows conditions’, the work understands form not as fixed but as emerging through the climatic, bodily, technical, economic and institutional conditions of its production. In the work, performers continuously measure humidity and temperature using analogue and digital devices as well as their own bodily perception. These measurements inform choreographed movement derived from the artist’s background in cheerleading, while visitors, weather, time, materials and the performers’ own needs continually reshape the work. Texts distributed throughout the space make visible the conditions of production – personal, economic, institutional and emotional – as well as the infrastructures and labour that make the work possible.

Valentino Skarwan studied Painting and Animated Film at the University of Applied Arts Vienna and was awarded the Kunsthalle Wien Preis for their performance and installation There is nothing new under the sun, but there are new suns (2026). The work reconstructs architectural fragments of a demolished gas station in Guatemala, which the artist reconstructed from a photograph. Sculptural elements evoke petrol hoses and jerry cans, while a recording of their resonant ambient sounds augments the exhibition architecture, which also serves as a setting for the performance. The installation unfolds as a Gesamtkunstwerk, exploring disused infrastructures and their continuing role in shaping everyday life. Skarwan considers the often-hidden systems that support both human and non-human life, while reflecting on how knowledge, objects and histories endure through circulation, collaboration and repeated encounters.