néa téchni
Founded in 2022 by a group of contemporary art enthusiasts, the NÉA TÉCHNI Award was established to recognise and support emerging and established artists worldwide. All previous final exhibitions of the award were held online, creating an accessible international platform for artists during its early years.
In 2026, NÉA TÉCHNI is pleased to present its first offline final exhibition, to be held in New York. This marks an important new chapter for the award, bringing together shortlisted artists and winners in a physical exhibition space for the first time. Details of the jury will be announced soon.
Remaining committed to contemporary art in all its forms, the NÉA TÉCHNI Award continues to support artistic excellence and foster meaningful connections between artists, curators, and audiences on an international level.
NÉA TÉCHNI Award Announces a New Video Art Festival & Category
This year, NÉA TÉCHNI Award is pleased to announce a new initiative: the launch of a Video Art Festival, which will serve as a prelude to the introduction of a new Video Art category within the NÉA TÉCHNI Award.
The festival will take place in early March 2026 at KC Grad, Belgrade, and will be curated by Alexandra Orlova, an independent curator whose work focuses on video art, memory, and narrative transformation.
Alexandra Orlova has previously curated Memoryscape, a video art project that explores the fluid and mutable nature of memory. The project examines how personal narratives evolve through oral retelling, gaps in documentation, and subjective interpretation, transforming memory into an ephemeral and malleable construct.
Through video art, Memoryscape created a reflective space for artists to engage with themes such as flashbacks, memory loss, vanishing landscapes, selective remembrance, and the experience of being “lost in translation.” These layered narratives collectively immersed the viewer in a shifting terrain of personal and collective memory.
Building on this curatorial approach, the upcoming Video Art Festival at KC Grad will introduce audiences to new perspectives in contemporary video art and mark an important expansion of the NÉA TÉCHNI Award’s program
What do we do?
We work to ensure that emerging artistic talent is seen, recognised, and supported. Through an international jury of art professionals, we identify and select artists whose practices demonstrate originality and strong contemporary relevance.
In addition to the award and exhibitions, we organise online and offline artist talks, bringing together artists, curators, writers, and other art professionals to encourage dialogue, visibility, and critical exchange.
Behind the scenes, we actively support emerging artists by connecting them with professional guidance from experienced art professionals. We are committed to mentoring and advising our shortlisted artists and winners, helping them navigate the art world with clarity and confidence.
If you are an emerging artist, or an institution interested in presenting artists, we welcome you to contact us to explore opportunities for collaboration.
Who can be a winner?
Who can be a winner?
We accept submissions from artists at all stages of their careers, from emerging to established practitioners. We celebrate creativity in all its forms and across a wide range of media, including painting and drawing, video, installation and performance, photography, digital and multimedia art, artistic film, and other contemporary practices.
In addition to visual and media-based works, we also welcome textual submissions, including critical and research-based writing. Our categories therefore include awards such as Best Text on Contemporary Art, recognising excellence in contemporary art discourse.
For all text-based categories, we ensure that at least one member of the jury is a qualified art professional with the expertise necessary to assess the quality, originality, and critical depth of written work.