MUHi 2026 | Shcherbenko Art Centre

Competition for Young Ukrainian Artists MUHi

2026

Results MUHi2026

Winner

Prize Winner MUHi

Prizewinner

Prize Winner MUHi

Finalists

About MUHi2026

Results of the Open Call for the MUHi 2026 Competition for Young Ukrainian Artists

The open call for MUHi 2026 – the Competition for Young Ukrainian Artists has concluded.

This year, we received 402 applications from emerging Ukrainian artists and artist collectives. The number of submissions reflects not only the growing interest in the competition but also the remarkable diversity of contemporary artistic practices currently evolving in Ukraine and abroad.

The selection process lasted several weeks and involved multiple stages of evaluation. Following an initial technical review, all eligible applications were assessed by an international jury comprising curators, museum directors, and art professionals from different countries. Based on the jury’s deliberations, a shortlist of ten finalists has been selected. Their projects will be presented at the final MUHi 2026 exhibition in September:

Critical Tech Group (Kyiv)
Elza Gubanova (Odesa / Leipzig)
Yevseviia Ziakina (Kharkiv)
Sofiia Kozlova (Kamianske / Lviv)
Dmytro Kupriyan (Kyiv / Sumy)
Alisa Kulesh (Kyiv / Düsseldorf)
Iryna Loskot (Kharkiv / Kyiv)
Daryna Mamaisur (Kyiv / Brussels)
Daria Molokoiedova (Kramatorsk / Kyiv)
Dasha Podoltseva (Kyiv)

We would like to sincerely thank every artist and collective who entrusted us with their work. It has been a privilege to encounter such a wide range of strong, courageous, and conceptually distinctive artistic proposals. Once again, the competition has demonstrated that contemporary Ukrainian art continues to evolve dynamically, with a new generation of artists actively shaping its future.

The exhibition of the finalists will open on 4 September at Promprylad Art Center in Ivano-Frankivsk. The exhibition will be curated by Kseniia Malykh, Program Director of Promprylad Art Center.

On 6 September, the competition’s award ceremony will take place, during which the international jury will select the winner of MUHi 2026. The recipient of the First Prize will receive a UAH 70,000 cash award, the opportunity to realise a new artistic project with curatorial support, a certificate, and the MUHi award sculpture, created by Pavla Nikitina, winner of the First Prize at MUHi 2021.

Two additional prize recipients will each receive a UAH 30,000 cash award and curatorial support for the development of their own exhibition projects.

International Jury

Lorenzo Balbi (Italy) — Director of MAMbo – Museum of Modern Art of Bologna, Head of the Department of Modern and Contemporary Art of the Civic Museums of Bologna, and President of AMACI.

Maryna Hutz (Ukraine) — Founder of MUHi and curator of contemporary art exhibitions.

Rae Jones (United Kingdom) — Artist and researcher whose work has been presented through projects with the Royal College of Art, London Design Festival, and Barbican Centre; co-founder of the Tool/Toy Project and member of the Steering Committee of OUTPOST Norwich.

Paul Haywood (United Kingdom) — Professor at Central Saint Martins (University of the Arts London), Co-Chair of the National Association for Fine Art Education, and internationally recognised academic and practitioner in art education and interdisciplinary collaboration.

Isa Ho (Taiwan) — Artist working with staged photography and digital synthesis.

Kseniia Malykh (Ukraine) — Curator, art historian, and Program Director of Promprylad Art Center.

Maria Proshkovska (Ukraine) — Artist and winner of the MUHi 2017 competition.

Project Team

Founder of the competition: Maryna Hutz

Institutional Partner: Promprylad Art Center

Media Partners: Artslooker, LB.ua

Exhibition Curator: Kseniia Malykh

Project Coordinator: Sviatoslav Mykhailov

Communications Manager: Tereza Lashchuk

Project Designer: Olha Kuzovkina

MUHi is a long-term, multifaceted initiative dedicated to supporting emerging Ukrainian artists at a crucial stage in the development of their artistic practice. The name MUHi is an acronym derived from the Ukrainian phrase “Young Ukrainian Artists and…”. The first MUHi exhibition was presented in 2009 at Bottega Gallery.

Publications About MUHi2026

Interview

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Publications

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International Jury of MUHi2026

Isa Ho (Taiwan)

An artist whose photographic practice has been strongly shaped by her background in oil painting. A rigorous sense of composition underpins her images, which rethink the documentary nature of the medium and combine it with a pronounced narrative quality. Working with staged photography and digital synthesis, Ho explores the tension between individuality and societal expectations, reconstructing and challenging notions of “reality.” Her work addresses the conflict of identities and stereotypes imposed on women by traditional society, presenting female figures in a space between vulnerability and strength — from idealized forms to resolute guardians of tradition. Through a digital aesthetic and a rational visual language, the artist pursues a bold and consistent exploration of her own identity.

Paul Haywood (United Kingdom)

Professor of Creative and Sustainable Learning at Central Saint Martins (University of the Arts London), сo-сhair of the National Association for Fine Art Education (NAFAE) for the UK, an academic and practitioner with extensive experience in art education, socially engaged practices, and interdisciplinary collaboration. His professional work focuses on the development of international educational formats, participatory and experiential learning, the interaction between art and communities, as well as supporting innovative approaches in cultural production, research, and education.

Rachel Jones (United Kingdom)

Rachel (Rae) Jones is an artist, researcher, and curator whose work centers on collaborative and participatory practices. Currently serving as the Chair of OUTPOST Gallery, an artist-run space where she leads the gallery’s programming, Rae works with artists from around the world to develop and present ambitious new work. Her project history includes collaborations with Royal College of Art, The Bartlett School of Architecture, Jerwood Arts, Barbican Centre, Oslo Architecture Trienniale, Van Gogh House and London Design Festival.

Ksenia Malykh (Ukraine)

Ukrainian art historian, curator, and researcher of contemporary art, currently serving as the Program Director of Promprylad Art Center in Ivano-Frankivsk. From 2016 to 2024, she headed the Research Platform at PinchukArtCentre. She is also a co-founder of the Closer Art Center and the curatorial collective OK Projects. She graduated from the National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture in Kyiv. She served as Manager of the Ukrainian Pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale and was Co-Curator of the Ukrainian Pavilion Guarantees of Safety at the 61st Venice Biennale. In 2026, she was included in the “UP 100. Women’s Power” list in the Culture category.

Maria Proshkovska (Ukraine)

A conceptual and socially engaged artist and feminist. In her artistic practice, she focuses on themes of memory, trauma, post-traumatic growth, and gender-related social issues. She uses her own body as a utilitarian material, considering it a central tool for expression and exploration. Her concepts are grounded in feminist perspectives, experiences of manual labor, and historical contexts, with particular attention to integrating the local environment as an essential component of her work. She graduated from the Kyiv National University of Internal Affairs with a degree in Law (Bachelor of Laws, LLB). In 2017, she received a special prize for young Ukrainian artists from MUHi Award. She holds a Master’s degree (with distinction) from the MA Performance: Society program at Central Saint Martins College. She is also a fellow of the Women in Conflict 1325 Fellowship Programme 2022 (Scotland, United Kingdom).

Maryna Hutz (Ukraine)

Ukrainian art curator, cultural manager, and co-founder of PROMIN’ Festival. She is the Founder and CEO of Shcherbenko Art Centre and the founder of the MUHi Award (Competition for Young Ukrainian Artists) and ARTUP Store. Born in 1977 in Cherkasy, Ukraine, she holds an MBA in Financial Management and completed the course Art as a Global Business at Sotheby’s Institute of Art. Since 2008, she has launched and led key contemporary art initiatives in Ukraine, including Bottega Gallery, MUHi, and Shcherbenko Art Centre — one of Kyiv’s leading experimental art spaces. She has curated numerous exhibitions in Ukraine and internationally, including projects in London, Frankfurt, Paris, Vilnius, Lisbon, and Sofia. Maryna has served as an expert for the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation and teaches the course “The System of Contemporary Art” at SKVOT. Through her curatorial and institutional work, she actively promotes contemporary Ukrainian art internationally.

Lorenzo Balbi (Italy)

an art critic and curator who has served since 2017 as Director of the MAMbo – Museum of Modern Art of Bologna and Head of the Modern and Contemporary Art Department of the Civic Museums of Bologna, and since 2022 as President of AMACI (Association of Italian Contemporary Art Museums). He is also Artistic Director of ART CITY Bologna and teaches at the University of Bologna and Bologna Business School. In 2022, he conceived Nuovo Forno del Pane, an interdisciplinary production centre for artistic creation and community-building. In 2024, he curated the 60th edition of the October Salon / Belgrade Biennale. A frequent contributor to leading contemporary art publications, he has curated exhibitions by numerous internationally renowned artists. Since 2021, he has been included in the Power 100 of Contemporary Art ranking by Il Giornale dell’Arte, was named Italy’s “Best Museum Director” by Artribune in 2022, and received the Flash Art Italia Award in the “Museum Director” category in 2025. In June 2026, he will inaugurate Giorgio Morandi. Solo at the MAP – Museum of Art Pudong in Shanghai, the largest retrospective of the artist ever organised abroad.

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