Eight students at art faculties in Romania have qualified for the finals of the New Wave Art Prize competition, the second edition, initiated by the Bog’Art Foundation, and three of them have the chance to win a prize worth 2000 euros each.
55 works were entered in the competition launched in April 2026. Young students submitted projects that respect the theme, “Human Value at the Beginning of the Age of AI”, bringing to the fore the relationship between man and technology in a global context marked by accelerated transformations.
The artists were encouraged to answer, through a work of art, some essential questions: How do we build our identity in a world where the border between the real and the virtual is becoming more and more diffuse? What changes in the artist’s creative process? Is artificial intelligence a tool or a partner? Can technology understand emotion or just simulate it?
Proposals could take the form of a painting, drawing, sculpture or installation and had to reflect a personal vision of how artificial intelligence is redefining human identity and relationships.
Following the judging, eight applications were selected, belonging to the artists (in alphabetical order): Alexia Besnă, Ana Huțanu, Carla David, Dana Guzu, Daria Sălăjeanu, Radu Gheorghe, Rebeca Ionescu, Rebeca Ulici.
Each of the eight finalists will receive the sum of 500 euros for the realization of the proposed work. Following the opening, three artists will be awarded 2000 euros each. They will be selected by the jury, based on the final works, exhibited in the Sandwich Neurohope gallery in Bucharest.
The New Wave Art Prize jury is made up of Bogdan Doicescu – Founding Member Bog’Art Foundation, Catinca Tăbăcaru – Gallerist, Co-Director RAD Fair, Daniela Pălimariu – Artist, Co-Director RAD Fair, Ștefan Sava – Artist, Co-founder Salonul de Proiecte, Mihnea Mircan – Curator, Plan B Cluj Foundation, Lorena Braeză – Architect, Founder The Challenge Academy.
“The theme of this edition — human value at the beginning of the AI age — generated surprisingly personal works. Some of the young artists chose to answer a question about the future by turning to the past: memory, family, inherited objects, photographs, a gesture of anchoring in a concrete and affective humanity, in response to an increasingly abstract world. Others chose to integrate artificial intelligence in subtle or surprising ways, causing overlaps or materializations sometimes with hope, sometimes with anxiety or hopelessness — but almost always with an honesty that impressed us”, declares Catinca Tăbăcaru.
“The works covered a wide register — from painting and sculpture to installations — and among them, those that integrated technology not as an end in itself, but as a language to ask precisely these questions about what remains human, stood out in particular,” declares Daniela Pălimariu.
“We believe that this competition has all the ingredients to become one of the main benchmarks for young artists in Romania, a complementary space to formal education that offers something essential: visibility, resource and confirmation that the work of today’s students matters for the art scene in Romania”, declares Bogdan Doicescu.
NEW WAVE Art Prize is a project created by the Bog’Art Foundation to discover and support talented students from art universities in Romania. The competition provides a professional framework for affirmation, facilitating the transition from concept to the production of a work exposed to the general public.
At the previous edition, 57 projects were entered, of which 7 were selected for the final exhibition. The winner of the 2025 edition, Ștefania Iakab, impressed the jury with the sculptural series “Alien Chic”, being rewarded with a scholarship offered by the Bog’Art Foundation.
