Artist of the Year 2026

Every year, artists produce work that reflects the world they live in, the questions they are asking, the materials they are exploring, and the ideas they are trying to make visible. Some build their practices over decades. Others are at the beginning of their careers, developing a visual language that is entirely their own. Their work differs in subject, medium, intention, and experience, but each practice contributes to the larger picture of contemporary art.

Yet, much of this work is encountered in fragments. An artwork is seen in an exhibition, an artist is discovered through a digital platform, or a body of work reaches a particular audience before attention moves elsewhere. There is rarely one place bringing together a considered selection of artists working at the same moment and preserving their work as part of a shared publication.

Artist of the Year was conceived to create that place.

An annual publishing initiative by Arts to Hearts Project, Artist of the Year brings together 100 selected artists in a hardcover collectible book. The purpose is not simply to compile a selection of artworks, but to create a publication in which individual practices can be encountered alongside one another. Each artist brings a different perspective, and together they offer a view of the ideas, approaches, and creative concerns occupying artists today.

The selection is open to different ways of making and thinking about art. We are interested in the work itself, the thought behind it, the choices an artist makes, and the development of a practice. By bringing artists from different backgrounds and stages of their careers into one publication, the project creates room for work to be considered on its own merits and discovered beyond the audiences it may already reach.

Each edition also carries a particular responsibility: to document a selection of artists at a specific moment in time. As the project develops year after year, these books will begin to form a larger collection. Viewed together, they will offer a record of the artists selected across editions, the practices they pursued, and the different directions contemporary art continued to take.

For the 2026 edition, Jennifer Rizzo joins as Guest Curator, contributing her perspective to the selection of featured artists.

From the 100 artists selected for publication, one will receive the title Artist of the Year 2026, along with a $500 cash prize, a trophy, and a dedicated four-page feature. The other selected artists will be featured in the same edition, making recognition part of a larger publishing project rather than an award that exists on its own.

The distinction matters, but so does the collection surrounding it. One artist receives the year’s title; 100 artists contribute to the publication. Both are essential to the project’s purpose.

Our long-term vision is to establish Artist of the Year as a continuing annual record of artistic practice, one that grows with every edition and brings new artists into a publication dedicated to their work. We want these books to offer more than a snapshot of who was selected in a particular year. We want them to become a way of discovering artists, understanding their practices, and looking back at the work being made during different moments in contemporary art.

Artist of the Year is ultimately about building something that grows beyond a single award: an annual collection of artists whose work deserves to be seen, considered, and remembered as part of the wider story of contemporary art.