Nordic & Baltic Young Artist Award, taking place already for the 6th time, is the only international art competition in the region that involves young talents at the beginning of their professional career. The competition gathers the best works from graduates of 4 art academies (Estonian Academy of Arts, Art Academy of Latvia, Vilnius Academy of Arts and Finland, Uniarts) to the online platform nbyaa.eu, promotes the graduation shows and brings international attention to the graduating students, who are facing the hardest moment at the start of their careers.
This year altogether 13 artists from Estonia, 15 from Finland, 33 from Latvia and 14 from Lithuania take part in the competition.
According to one of the founders of the contest, Andra Orn from NOAR.eu, the award has well established its position in the art field. “The competition gives a good overview of the contemporary art field today also a glimpse of the future. This year shows especially how the division of different mediums is getting blurrier with each year, and even for the jury it is getting harder to make decisions.”
Within the six years, NOBA Award has grown into a significant competition for young talents in our region – they look forward to participating and see it as a good opportunity to introduce themselves in the art field and get more attention. “We are also glad to announce that Katerina Gregos, the curator of Riga Biennial RIBOCA 2018 and now Artistic Director of the National Museum of Contemporary Art (EMST) in Athens, will join the international jury. This will broaden the possibilities for the emerging artists to get noticed at the international level,” Orn added.
Voting for Public Choice award is open until 5 December 2021 at NBYAA.eu, where it is also possible to take a look at all of the artworks submitted to the contest. The most voted artist – Public Choice – will receive a monetary prize of 500€.
The international jury will select the winners of the Grand Prix and the Young Painter Award. The winners will receive monetary prices 2000 € and 1000 € accordingly.
The international jury of NOBA’21 consists of Anne Klontz (USA/Sweden konstfack), Katerina Gregos (National Museum of Contemporary Art (EMST) in Athens), Simonas Kuliešis (Vilnius Academy of Arts), Andris Vitolinš (Latvian Academy of Arts), Andra Orn (contemporary art platform NOAR.eu), Pire Sova (Estonian Academy of Arts), Harri Monni (Helsinki Uniarts).
Nordic & Baltic Young Artist Award established in 2016, brings the works from the graduation shows in Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania together on a unified platform, making artworks more visible to collectors, curators and art lovers of the Baltic and Nordic region. The aim is to introduce and identify the brightest emerging talents in the Baltic and Nordic region and support the newest generation of artists in their professional endeavours. In 2020, Kristine Krauze-Slucka (Latvia) was awarded the Grand Prix, Laura Vela (Latvia) received the Painters Award and Akvilė Malukienė (Lithuania) won the Public Choice Award.
The Award is coordinated by contemporary art platform NOAR.eu in cooperation with Art Academy of Latvia, Estonian Academy of Arts, Vilnius Art Academy and University of the Arts in Helsinki.
