RIGA.- The international jury of the Nordic and Baltic Young Artist Award competition decided to hand out this year’s Grand Prix along with the 2000-euro prize to Lithuanian artist Agata Orlovska. The Young Painter Award and a 1000-euro prize were awarded to Katrina Laura Biksone, who recently completed her bachelor's studies at the Art Academy of Latvia. The Public Choice award, including a 500 euro prize, goes to a talented Estonian photographer, Andrea Margó Rotenberg, a Pallas University of Applied Sciences graduate.

The winner of the Grand Prix, Agata Orlovska graduated from the Vilnius Academy of Arts in the spring and submitted three mixed-media works to the competition: "Because It’s Worse When You Get Home," "Preserve My Language Forever," and "Butterfly Effect + Lapis Lazuli." Previously, Orlovska has participated in group shows and received various recognitions; she is also a finalist for this year's Young Painter Prize in Lithuania.

Andrea Margó Rotenberg, who received the Public Choice award, explored the possibilities of using artificial intelligence in photo creation in her work “AI & I”. She made two parallel double-exposure series. The pictures were taken in Lasnamägi, Tallinn, and South Estonia. An artist put one of the series manually, whereas the other was made using the remix option in the MidJourney AI image generator. Andrea explains: “The photos made only by me with the help of Photoshop look surreal and almost impossible, yet when they’re observed, the viewer can still understand what is depicted. The series made with AI gave a whole different version of the photos, which looked like they could be real photos of some new places. AI-generated images were quite photo-realistic and looked like different empty dystopian sceneries.” The only downside that the artist brings out is that many original details were lost in the image generation of AI.

The Young Painter Award and a 1000-euro prize were awarded to Katrina Laura Biksone, who recently completed her bachelor's studies at the Art Academy of Latvia. She submitted a series of three paintings to the competition. Biksone's work has been featured in several group exhibitions in Latvia and Germany.

Special prizes

Participating in the competition allows art academy graduates to stand out among wider audiences and specialists in the field and find new international opportunities. It also provides an opportunity to compare the creators of neighbouring countries and their artworks.

The following special prizes were handed out

An invitation to attend Viinistu Art Residency - was awarded by the jury to Arvid Staaf, a graduate of the Uniarts Helsinki for his installation "Strangers at the Abyss."
Fotografiska Tallinn selected three outstanding artists from the competition participants, granting them a one-year pass to Fotografiska: Andrea Margó Rotenberg, Annemarija Gulbe, and Gabrielė Monginaitė.

A selection of winning artworks will be exhibited in Tallinn ArtDepoo Gallery next year.

The Nordic and Baltic Young Artist Award is a one-of-a-kind international competition that showcases the works of the graduates of the Estonian Academy of Arts, Pallas University of Applied Sciences, Art Academy of Latvia, Vilnius Academy of Arts and Helsinki Uniarts. In 2023, 142 artists with 256 works took part in the competition.

The winners of the Nordic and Baltic Young Artist Awards are selected by an international jury, including Anne Klontz from Konstfack University of Art, Latvian Academy of Art professor Andris Vītoliņš, EKA gallerist Pire Sova, head of Pallas Art School Pallas painting department Margus Meinart, Vilnius Academy of Arts rector Ieva Skauronė, Uniarts Helsinki lecturer and artist Harri Monni, professor Per Nilsson of the Umeå Art Academy, Taina Erävaara from the Turku Art Academy, Maarja Loorents, co-founder of Fotografiska Tallinn and head of exhibitions, Marti Manen, curator and director of The Swedish Contemporary Art Foundation in Stockholm, and Andra Orn, founder of the NOBA.ac art platform. The winner of the Public Choice award was determined through an online public vote, receiving over 1000 votes for favourite artworks.