From 6 February through 7 June, Erarta Museum of Contemporary Art was hosting an exhibition of artworks nominated for the 2026 Erarta Prize – the only art prize judged by the viewers. The total prize value of 3.5 million rubles was fully allocated towards supporting the artists and distributed among the nominees according to the viewers’ vote.
In 2006, for the Prize’s fourth edition, Erarta once again encouraged the viewers to select their favourite artwork according to their own choices and preferences: the 2026 Erarta Prize exhibition was staged with the special aim of determining the winners through a public vote. The large-scale show at Erarta’s Grand Hall featured the artworks by 40 contemporary artists – paintings, drawings, prints, sculptures, mosaics, photographs, installations, as well as other contemporary art media. Over the span of four months, exhibition visitors voted for their favourite artworks and attended artist talks to make an informed choice.
Each of the nominees received a guaranteed reward that depended on their exact rating score. There were a total of two voting rounds. The first round lasted from 6 February through 20 April. It had shortlisted the 10 winning artists whose works went on to compete in the second round from 21 April through 3 June. The ultimate winners of the 2026 Erarta Prize were announced at the awards ceremony on 4 June. The majority of viewer votes went to Midsummer Night, a mosaic by the artist collective Uspekh Provalov, for which the Grand Prix of 500,000 rubles was awarded.
Launched in 2023, the Erarta Prize was justly awarded the title of Project of the Year in the Arts Category by the Delovoy Peterburg daily business newspaper. The enthusiastic feedback received from everyone involved – artists and viewers alike – keeps this project going. The past years’ Erarta Prize nominees continue to actively collaborate with the museum: some of their works were added to Erarta’s permanent collection, and many artists were invited by the Curatorial Team to have their solo exhibitions at Erarta. We are looking forward to new exciting discoveries!
Erarta would like to thank everyone who took an active part in awarding the prize!
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