NN Art Award 2026

Discover the work of the nominees for the NN Art Award 2026 at the Kunsthal. The exhibition introduces the audience to works by Tina Farifteh (Gallery Vriend van Bavink), Mandy Franca (Night Café Gallery), Fiona Lutjenhuis (Galerie Fleur & Wouter) and Kyra Nijskens (Prospects Mondriaan Fonds). The prestigious award is presented annually to a talented artist who was trained in the Netherlands and presents their work at the art fair Art Rotterdam. Authenticity and innovation are key criteria for this annual incentive award. From a selection of more than forty submissions, the professional jury selected four finalists. The jury consists of Marianne Splint (General Director, Kunsthal Rotterdam), Pris Roos (artist and winner of the NN Art Award 2025), Jacquill G. Basdew (social-cultural initiator, curator and board member), Edo Dijksterhuis (freelance journalist for, among others, Het Parool and Museumtijdschrift), and Maartje de Roy van Zuydewijn (curator of the NN Art Collection).

The incentive award consists of a cash prize to support the further development of the winner’s work. Works by the four nominees will be presented at the Kunsthal Rotterdam from 14 March to 25 May. The festive announcement of this year’s winner will take place at the Kunsthal on Friday, 27 March 2026.

Tina Farifteh is a photographer and filmmaker. In her work, she explores how power structures shape the lives of ordinary people. Farifteh draws viewers toward subjects we might prefer to look away from – because they are complex, uncomfortable, or difficult to confront. For Document Nederland 2025, her project on the Dutch asylum system, Farifteh follows B., who enters an asylum procedure after spending more than four months in immigration detention at Schiphol Airport and a period at the reception centre in Ter Apel. By positioning B. as the narrator, Farifteh shifts our perspective on asylum procedures. Rather than speaking about asylum seekers, she invites us to listen to them directly. In doing so, Farifteh holds up a mirror to the viewer: the work is not about them, but about us.

Mandy Franca’s work is an ongoing exploration of connection, drawing on her upbringing in a cross-cultural environment and her personal memories. Franca examines and observes the meaning of everyday life, assigning lasting value to what might otherwise seem insignificant. As an artist, she questions and subverts the traditional use of graphic techniques by experimenting with a wide range of artistic media. Her practice brings together painting, photography, printmaking, drawing, collage, video, sound, sculpture and installation. Recurring elements in her work include the photographic image and mark-making.

Fiona Lutjenhuis’s work centers on depicting and reinterpreting the religious ideologies she grew up with in a village in the Dutch province of North Brabant. Her parents were members of a sect based on a mix of theosophical ideas, esoteric cosmologies, and beliefs in extraterrestrial life and supernatural beings. Lutjenhuis’s folding screens, drawings, and murals act as carriers of stories. In a poetic way, she combines esoteric, New Age aesthetics with a range of visual influences drawn from comic books, Japanese prints, and medieval religious paintings.

Kyra Nijskens explores how humans influence and reshape ecological systems. Her work focuses on biofouling: the attachment of marine and micro-organisms to industrial structures such as ship hulls and underwater pipelines. Unnoticed, these organisms travel along global shipping routes, settle in new places, and disrupt existing infrastructures. Her work also comments on logistical systems. Every year, 1,382 shipping containers are lost at sea, sometimes resulting in cargo such as Crocs or yellow rubber ducks washing up on beaches.