Köler Prize 2026

The jubilee season of the Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia (EKKM) will be launched with the return of the Köler Prize! The exhibition of the works of the nominees will feature five Estonian artists who will each create a new work, based on which an international jury will select the winner of the main prize and the visitors will decide the recipient of the Audience Award. The Köler Prize exhibition will be accompanied by a catalogue, a film and a spectacular awards gala. The five artists nominated by EKKM for the Köler Prize 2026 are: Anna Mari Liivrand, Darja Popolitova, Hanna Samoson, Keiu Maasik and Taavi Suisalu. In 2026, the main award of 15,000 euros will be sponsored by the indie video game developer and publisher ZA/UM Studio and its fashion division ZA/UM Atelier. An Audience Award of 5,000 euros will be sponsored by the law firm COBALT. Köler Prize was founded in 2011 by EKKM to popularise contemporary art, as well as to give prominence to and recognise local artists. The seventh and most recent Köler Prize exhibition took place in 2018, after which the award has been on hold due to difficult circumstances. However, culture, together with art and artists, still needs attention and support in today’s fragile world, maybe even more so. Köler Prize can support artists thanks to private supporters who consider it important to fund culture even in difficult times. The jury for the 2026 award includes Greek curator and art historian Panos Giannikopoulos; Monika Lipšic, curator of the Rupert Residency and Public Programme; curator and artistic director of PUBLICS Paul O’Neill; and the previous Köler Prize (2018) main prize winners, Tanja Muravskaja and Anna Škodenko.