Erste Bank Art Award 2026
We are delighted to announce that the Erste Bank Art Award 2026 has been awarded to Ana de Almeida in recognition of her outstanding artistic practice.
The Erste Bank Art Award is a long-standing partnership project of DAS WEISSE HAUS and Erste Bank Sponsoring Programme. For its eleventh edition in 2026, the award is presented in collaboration with the Austrian Cultural Forum Budapest.
The Erste Bank Art Award is endowed with 5.000 euros and includes an exhibition at DAS WEISSE HAUS as well as a residency and the site-adapted version of the same exhibition in the respective host country.
First launched in 2016, the Erste Bank Art Award is dedicated to artists who have taken part in the program of Kunstverein das weisse haus and is awarded through a two-stage jury process.
The opening of the exhibition at DAS WEISSE HAUS in Vienna will be on September 15, 2026!
More info coming soon!
Jury Statement
Ana de Almeida works across photography, video, installation, and performance. Her practice probes the politics of memory through archival strategies that bridge personal and collective histories. Central to de Almeida’s approach is the activation of vernacular archives as sites for examining revolutionary desire, the transmission of resistance, and the formation of political subjectivities. Grounded in rigorous yet accessible research, her projects are marked by conceptual precision, a deliberate methodology, and a sustained commitment that reflects both strong artistic and theoretical depth, alongside a clear and compelling creative vision. In our current moment of contested histories and political fragmentation, de Almeida’s work becomes essential, demonstrating how personal archival investigation functions as an act of political agency, reshaping collective understanding memory and reclaiming suppressed narratives.
Jury Members
Georgia Holz (Freelance Curator, Author, and Lecturer at University of Applied Arts Vienna)
Fabian Ortner (Director of the Austrian Cultural Forum Budapest)
Nevena Janković (BLOCKFREI Collective | Leadership of DAS WEISSE HAUS)
Eva Kovač (BLOCKFREI Collective | Leadership of DAS WEISSE HAUS)
Finalists 2026
Nicoleta Auersperg, Lisa Großkopf, Lena Rosa Händle, Allegra Kortlang, Lila-Zoé Krauß, Hanna Kučera, Anna Paul, Christina Werner, Anita Witek
Short Biography of the Awarded Artist
Ana de Almeida is an artist and author based between Lisbon and Vienna. She is currently researching on the production of images in an inter-revolutionary space between the Carnation and the Velvet Revolutions. Her editorial work further complements her artistic practice, with contributions to publications and collective projects focused on decolonial and post-socialist perspectives. Ana de Almeida has worked as a lecturer at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, University of Applied Arts Vienna and at the German Department of the University of Vienna. She was a DOC-Team fellow of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, a Junior Fellow at IFK Vienna and a research associate of GRAMA at the Bauhaus University in Weimar. Her work has been exhibited at institutions such as KKKC Klaipėda, Camera Austria, Kunsthalle Wien, Belvedere 21, MNAC and MAAT in Lisbon, Serralves Foundation in Porto, ICA Yerevan, CSULA Los Angeles and GHMP City Gallery Prague. She is a recipient of the Austrian State Grant for Media Arts and the BES Revelação Art Prize.