Lesia Vasylchenko is the main prize winner of the 8th edition of the PinchukArtCentre Prize, a nationwide prize for Ukrainian artists aged 35 or younger.
Vasylchenko was awarded 400,000 UAH (about $10,000) and will automatically be shortlisted for the next edition of the Future Generation Art Prize—a worldwide contemporary art prize. Offering a view into the artistic practices of the next generation of Ukrainian artists, the PinchukArtCentre prize gives support and a platform for young Ukrainian artists to create new works with the full institutional support of the art centre. During the award ceremony, the artist announced that she would donate the entire prize sum to charitable contributions in support of the army.
The founder of the Prize, businessman and philanthropist Victor Pinchuk, addressed the audience: “Ukrainian art today is a weapon. We have presented the works of Ukrainian artists at major and politically significant events—in Washington, in Davos during the World Economic Forum, in Munich during the Security Conference—and I have seen heads of governments, heads of states, moved to tears. We need their emotions because those emotions influence their decisions. And as a result, we received more weapons.”
While introducing Lesia Vasylchenko, winner of the PinchukArtCentre Prize 2025, the jury stated: “The jury awards the main prize to Lesia Vasylchenko for a physically impressive while poetic work that elegantly creates a study of the Ukrainian sky—a symbol that in this realization becomes simultaneously a space of longing, trauma and hope.
“The sky—once a space of freedom—becomes a backdrop for disasters, but also a space of memory and contemplation. With poetic editing and a sense of rhythm, the artist tells of a world that is changing before our eyes from 1918 till this very day—not through violent images, but through their absence, through silence, through light and shadow.
“The work subtly raises urgent questions about authorship, futurity, and the algorithmic construction of historical narrative. The jury was particularly impressed by the installation’s conceptual rigour, technological sophistication, and deep emotional resonance, offering a contemplative yet urgent response to historical rupture, one that bridges intimacy with scale, and the human with the planetary.”
Björn Geldhof, Artistic Director of the PinchukArtCentre added: “We were also very humbled by the fact that the main prize winner committed to donating all the funds she received back to the army, which deeply moved the audience and all present.”
Main image: Lesia Vasylchenko, Night Without Shadows and Light Rippling of Waves, 2022-2025. Video Installation. Photo by Ela Bialkowska, OKNO Studio for PinchukArtCentre
Anna Melnykova, "Palace of Labor (palats praci), architector I. Pretro, 1916", shot with analog Canon camera, 35 mm Fuji film in March 2022.
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