Meet the Final 30

The 30 finalists of the 2026 Sovereign Portuguese Art Prize have been announced, bringing together Portuguese artists and artists of other nationalities resident in Portugal in a selection that reflects the breadth of the country’s contemporary art scene.

The final 30 span painting, photography, sculpture, installation and multidisciplinary practices, with works exploring identity, memory, place, the body, technology and wider social and political questions.

Together, they offer a broad snapshot of contemporary practice in Portugal today.

Thirty different perspectives

Among the shortlist, individual works reveal very different ways of approaching those themes.

Some works begin with deeply personal experiences or memories. Others turn their attention outwards, responding to social questions, changing landscapes or wider cultural conversations. Traditional materials sit alongside photography, installation and experimental processes, while familiar subjects are approached from unexpected perspectives.

In Sónia Apolónia’s photographic work, for example, a journey through India becomes an invitation to look upwards. Her Above the Noise series focuses on the dense networks of overhead wires found above busy streets, isolating patterns that can easily disappear within the visual intensity below.

In another example, Ana Malta’s Os direitos estão tortos responds to the restrictions imposed on women in Afghanistan, including limitations on women’s voices in public life. The work demonstrates how contemporary practice can engage with events far beyond the artist’s immediate surroundings while giving visual form to questions of freedom and expression.

Author: Os direitos estão tortos, Ana Malta;

Other finalists approach memory, identity and place in very different ways. In Mimi Tavares’ Lembro-me de quando, a reflected figure seems to disappear from view, creating a quiet sense of absence and impermanence.

Evy Jokhova’s ceramic sculpture Roman Mother explores the body through colour, form and emotion, while Bettina Vaz Guimarães’ Sítio Desconhecido builds an imagined architectural landscape from layers of acrylic, graphite and geometric forms.

A significant year for women artists

There is, however, one characteristic of this year’s selection that stands out.

Women make up 60% of the 2026 finalists, the highest proportion of female finalists in the history of the Sovereign Portuguese Art Prize.

The figure comes at an interesting moment for the Prize. Introduced in 2025, the dedicated Women’s Prize returns this year with Tripwix Luxury Rentals as its new sponsor, continuing to create additional recognition and opportunity for exceptional female artists working in Portugal.

The inaugural award went to Alice Marcelino, whose experience since winning has highlighted the importance of what can follow: recognition, new conversations, connections and opportunities for an artist’s work to reach wider audiences.

This year’s 18 female finalists bring another diverse range of practices and perspectives to the exhibition, with the Women’s Prize continuing alongside the Grand Prize and Public Vote Prize.

The next stage of the Prize

Artists entering the Sovereign Portuguese Art Prize are nominated by independent arts professionals before submitting a work for consideration. Their submissions are then reviewed by an international panel of judges, including Tim Marlow of the Design Museum, Philippe Vergne, former director of the Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art, Adelaide Ginga of MACAM, and curator and museum director David Elliott, resulting in the 30 works selected for this year’s finalist exhibition.

In November, those works will leave screens, studios and storage spaces behind and come together physically at Lisbon’s historic Sociedade Nacional de Belas-Artes (SNBA).

A Prize reaching further

For Howard Bilton, Founder and Chairman of the Sovereign Art Foundation, the strength of the shortlist reflects how firmly the Prize has become established in Portugal.

“When we launched the Portuguese Prize five years ago, the question was whether the model that had worked for us in Asia for two decades would take root here. This shortlist answers it. Thirty artists, chosen not by us but by the people who know Portuguese art best, its curators, critics and academics, and then scrutinised by an international jury. That is why a place on this list means something.”

This year, the Prize is also creating new ways for artists and audiences to connect. A collaboration with Galeria NAVE and its O Banquete exhibition introduced a new route into the Prize, with one participating artist selected to join the final 30.

Alongside the exhibition, the Sovereign Art Foundation presents First Editions à Mesa, a series of intimate dinners designed to bring collectors, supporters and audiences closer to the artists and their work. Through conversations, studio connections and experiences inspired by the finalist works, the series creates opportunities to discover more about the ideas and practices behind the art.

Together, these initiatives are allowing the Prize to reach further into Portugal’s artistic community while strengthening the connection between its professional art programme and the Foundation’s charitable work.

As Bilton explains: “What matters most is what happens next: half of every sale goes to the artist and the other half pays for therapists to work with children in Lisbon, Estremoz and the Algarve.”

Those therapist-led programmes remain at the heart of the Sovereign Art Foundation’s work in Portugal, using expressive arts therapy to support children and young people facing a range of challenges.

Thirty works, one exhibition

The next stage of the Prize will bring all 30 finalist works together at the Sociedade Nacional de Belas-Artes in Lisbon, where the exhibition will run from 25 November to 12 December 2026.

For visitors, this will be the first opportunity to experience the full shortlist in one place and to see the range of practices, materials and ideas represented across this year’s selection.

The exhibition will also form the setting for the final judging, with the Grand Prize, Women’s Prize and Public Vote Prize all to be decided during the exhibition period.

It will be accompanied by a wider programme of events designed to create opportunities for artists, audiences, collectors and supporters to engage with the work and with one another.

Main Image Credit (from left to right): Lembro-me de quando, Mimi Tavares; Roman Mother, Evy Jokhova & Sítio Desconhecido, Bettina Vaz Guimarães.

The final 30 have been chosen. Now it is time to discover their work.

https://www.sovereignartfoundation.com/the-sovereign-portuguese-art-prize/

Find out more about the Sovereign Art Foundation’s work in Portugal:

https://www.sovereignartfoundation.com/expressive-arts-programme-portugal/

Vote online and explore the shortlisted Student Prize artworks:
https://www.sovereignartfoundation.com/sp-portugal/

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Sovereign Art Foundation Portugal
📧 Tanya@sovereignartfoundation.com