AJF Declares the Winner of the 2026 Younger Artist Award, Supported by Karen and Michael Rotenberg

Lynchburg, VA, USA—Artwork Jewellery Discussion board (AJF) is happy to announce that Benedict Haener, from Switzerland, has gained the 2026 Younger Artist Award. Haener was chosen from greater than 60 candidates from a lot of totally different international locations. He receives an unrestricted money prize of US$7,500. 

By way of the Younger Artist Award, AJF helps new and thrilling work that may encourage future developments within the subject. The prize acknowledges promise, innovation, and individuality within the work of rising jewellery artists aged 35 and youthful. It’s given each two years. 

The winner and finalists have been judged on originality, depth of idea, continuity of design, and high quality of workmanship. This 12 months’s jurors have been 2024 Younger Artist Award winner Bryan Parnham (from the US), Thereza Pedrosa (Italy and Netherlands), and Jimena Ríos (Argentina). Ríos based Taller Eloi, a jewellery faculty in Buenos Aires. She works as an educator, curator, and editor. Pedrosa is an artwork historian, unbiased curator, creator, and gallery proprietor with in depth worldwide expertise in modern artwork and jewellery. She describes Haener’s work as “modern and masterful in its use of supplies and methods,” stating that Haener’s work “combines modern themes with notable depth, offered with an nearly playful sensibility. Significantly compelling is the best way it engages a number of senses, making a perceptual expertise that extends past the purely visible.”

The 4 finalists for this 12 months’s prize are Corrina Goutos (US/Germany), Steven KP (US), Marie-Caroline Locquet (France), and Zhipeng Wang (China). The finalists every obtain US$1,000.

For the third cycle in a row, the Younger Artist Award competitors is generously supported by collectors Karen and Michael Rotenberg, whose assortment focuses on the modern use of different supplies by rising expertise and mid-career artists. 

The winner and finalists are presently exhibiting their work at AJF member gallery PLATINA throughout Schmuck, the annual worldwide artwork jewellery honest in Munich held this 12 months from March 4–March 8, 2026.  AJF thanks AJF board member Sofia Björkman, the proprietor of PLATINA, for offering this showcase. The winner and finalists will all be interviewed on AJF’s web site over the subsequent few months, and we sit up for sharing extra about these gifted artists with you.

The opinions said right here don’t essentially specific these of AJF.

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