The Esterházy Art Award 2021 prizes to be presented on 30th November

Luca Sára Rózsa, #katatranker and #adamulbert are the winners of the Esterházy Art Award 2021. The prize is awarded every two years and the exhibition accompanying the award is considered the most valuable survey of the young Hungarian art scene.

The 26 nominees were selected by a jury of experts from a pool of 282 applicants. The exhibition entitled Esterházy Art Award – Young Scene Hungary – Short List 2021 will be on view from the 1st December 2021 to the 13rd February 2022 at the #ludwigmuseum – Museum of #contemporaryart, Budapest.

This year's exhibition is dedicated by the Esterházy Privatstiftung to Pál V, Prince Esterházy (1901–1989), a great patron of Hungarian science and culture. Recent research has revealed that Pál Esterházy founded the Esterházy Prize as early as 1937. His activities as a patron, which had a great impact on Hungarian cultural life, have been reflected on by Marcell Esterházy in a video collage displayed in the first room of the exhibition.

Young Scene Hungary – Short List 2021

As a continuation of the Esterházy family's history in Central Europe and long tradition of patronage, the Esterházy Privatstiftung has been supporting #contemporaryart in Hungary since 2009 with a biennial award and the related exhibition. The shortlisted artists and the three winners, who each receive €5,000, are selected by an independent international jury.

The number of entries submitted to Esterházy Art Award was 282. The expert jury nominated 26 artists for this year's award from this impressive pool of applicants. Due to its size, central role and careful selection of nominated artists, the exhibition related to the award represents the most significant overview of the art scene of young Hungarian talents.

The cultural significance of the Esterházy Art Award lies not only in supporting #contemporaryart, but also in the opportunity to explore new tendencies and attitudes in society.

A surprising number of entries selected for the Short List 2021 deal with the role of materiality and corporeality. There are also many narrative approaches. However, abstract and self-reflexive artistic traditions that seemed important earlier have almost disappeared.

The exhibition intends to serve these tendencies: the entries which earlier appeared typically isolated in the exhibition space now engage in dialogue with one another. For example, one of the works displayed appears dispersed in all the spaces of the exhibition. This arrangement allows for observation to decide whether the relationships established this way across the borders of different artistic worlds will foster inspiring friendships or create dangerous situations of rivalry. 

The Esterházy Art Award 2021 Nominees and Exhibiting Artists:

BALÁZS Nikolett, BILAK Krystyna, CZENE Márta, DALLOS Ádám, DÓRA Ádám, EJTECH (KÁRPÁTI Judit Eszter és Esteban de la TORRE), FÁBRI Zachary, FRIDVALSZKI Márk, HORESNYI Bálint, KÁDÁR Emese, KISS Adrian, KISS Adrienn Mária, KOÓS Gábor, KÚTVÖLGYI-SZABÓ Áron, MELKOVICS Tamás, NEOGRÁDY-KISS Barnabás, PINTÉR Gábor, RÓZSA Luca Sára, RUDAS Klára, SCHWÉGER Zsófia, SÜVEGES Rita, SZABÓ Eszter, TOLLAS Erik, TRANKER Kata, TRAPP Dominika, ULBERT Ádám 

This year's three winners were chosen by an independent international jury of experts after a constructive debate.

The winners of the 2021 Esterházy Art Award are Sára Luca Rózsa, #katatranker and Ádám Ulbert.

The prize, worth €15,000 in total, will be divided equally between the three winners.

Further information in the press release to download