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Young Visual Artists Awards

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A network of 12 national awards that provide young artists from Central & Eastern Europe with a residency in NYC supported by TMU
@residencyunlimited
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Introducing the Artists in Residence joining us this November! Leutrim Morina (@leotrim_morina_) is the winner of the Artists of Tomorrow Award 2025 organized by Stacion CCA in Pristina. Reflecting on his personal experiences and cultural background, Leutrim works across painting, performance, video, and photography. He uses artistic means to influence the perception of viewers and bring about positive change. Leutrim uses humor and irony to make complex and often difficult topics more accessible. At the same time, he strives to evoke a sense of calm and reflection in people. His projects and artworks explore the tension between life’s challenges and the possibility of recognizing the good, where he wants to show that, regardless of difficulties, there is room for hope, creativity, and positive transformation. His practice explores themes of freedom, expression, justice, memory, and trauma. Leutrim uses diverse forms and techniques to create experiences that provoke reflection, spark curiosity, and inspire resilience. His art is both personal and universal, connecting individual histories with shared human struggles, emphasizing that creativity and courage can transform life and offer hope. Leutrim Morina’s residency is made possible with support from the Trust for Mutual Understanding. #ResidencyUnlimited #ArtistsInResidence #RUresidency #ArtResidency by @___yvaa___
Featuring RU artist-in-residence Nika Erjavec (@nika.erjavec) in the RU voices interview series 🎤 Nika Erjavec is the winner of the 2025 OHO Award. Nika Erjavec is an interdisciplinary artist focused on the ways sensory languages and systems shape and challenge modes of sensing. Grounded in research and hands-on experimentation, she is currently exploring urban wilderness and working with the physicality of vibration and light, creating interactive installations that probe perception and our idea of reality. Her most recent solo exhibition (un)objectivity (2024) was presented at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Ljubljana. Nika Erjavec has two permanent installations: the interactive light ambient Cellular Landscapes (2024) in front of the University Medical Centre Ljubljana and the interactive sound installation with Doroteja Erhatič V/Posluh (2022) at the Slovenian Institute of Chemistry in Ljubljana. During her master’s studies, she received the highest award of the Academy for her series of installations and hybrid artistic research (2019). Nika Erjavec is a member of the teaching staff at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design, University of Ljubljana in the Video, Animation and New Media department. Since 2014, she has been actively exhibiting in the local and international context. Nika was part of the exhibition “Something’s Glitching in the House” curated by Data Chigholashvili, Curator of Residency Unlimited, at RU House on Governors Island. Exploring abandoned spaces, urban wilderness and posthumanist landscapes, Nika Erjavec’s sculptural installations test our perception through the senses. The artist brings together plants and found objects, and creates subtle yet accelerated motions between marginal points. In doing so, what we expect to see in her kinetic-audio sculptures becomes purposefully hard to perceive as stable images. #residencyunlimited #artistinresidence #ruresidency Nika Erjavec’s residency is made possible with support from the Trust for Mutual Understanding. by @___yvaa___
Introducing the Artists in Residence joining us this October! Olsi Hoxha (@olsi_____ and @nepotik) is the recipient of the 2025 Ardhje Award (@zeta_contemporary_art_center) for young visual artists in Albania. Hoxha is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice spans materials, disciplines, and technologies, including electroacoustic sound sculptures, video art, collage, photography, installation, and circuit bending. He moves between the technical and the poetic, working with found objects, obsolete technologies, and discarded media to reflect on how technological, social, and personal systems shape perception, behavior, and meaning. His work is informed by cybernetics, chaos theory, and technological nostalgia, exploring how feedback—both literal and metaphorical—shapes the world: how small actions ripple through systems, how randomness coexists with structure, and how control and collapse blur. Using thrown-away materials such as old electronics, broken devices, and forgotten images, he creates interactive works that function as a form of urban archaeology. His projects invite public participation and emphasize glitch aesthetics, instability, play, and open-ended processes. Source of Uncertainty, Hoxha’s solo exhibition was presented at Minus Art Space in 2025. He has been a part of several group exhibitions at venues such as Bazament Art Space, Tirana (2019); Bulevard Art Space, Tirana (2021); Oda Gallery, Shkodër (2022). Olsi Hoxha has published several catalogues, among them Zanafilla (2018); Nepotik Nr.1 (2019); Nepotik Nr.2 (2020); Nepotik Nr.3 (2022); Nepotik Nr.4 (2023); Nepotik Libera (Heldi Pema) (2021); Nepotik – Asa Nisi Masa (2024); Nepotik Sabanum (2020). He was an editor, sound designer, and composer for Në Parajsën Socialiste (Nuk bie Shi), dir. Ermela Teli (2024), and he is the Founder and Director of Radioblog Tirana & Eyeblog, platforms for alternative music (2015–present). Olsi Hoxha’s residency is made possible with support from the Trust for Mutual Understanding. #ResidencyUnlimited #ArtistsInResidence #RUresidency #ArtResidency by @___yvaa___
Introducing the Artists in Residence joining us this October! Nemanja Milenković (@nemanja____milenkovic) is the winner of the 2025 Dimitrije Bašičević Mangelos Award (@mangelosnagrada). Milenković explores the relationships between humans and non-human animals, which he understands as existing along a spectrum between two extremes: the radical exploitation of non-human animals and their radical protection. He creates layered installations that incorporate drawing, painting, readymade objects, and performance, seeking to understand processes of coexistence with nature through discipline and collaboration in artistic practice. Alongside his individual practice, he is a member of the renowned art group Led Art, founded by Nikola Džafo in 1993. His recent exhibitions include: 25 Years of the Dimitrije Bašičević Mangelos Award, FLU Gallery, Belgrade, Serbia (2026); (Un)Natural Speculations, coauthored solo exhibition with Darija Dragojlović, Subotica Contemporary Art Gallery, Subotica, Serbia (2025); IN-SITU: Artistic Positions on Endangered Biodiversity and the Coexistence of Species, < rotor >, group exhibition, Graz, Austria (2024); Razmišljanja o nestajanju (Thoughts About Vanishing), Gallery Kazamat, coauthored solo exhibition with Újházi Adrienn, Osijek, Croatia (2022); Overview Effect, Museum of Contemporary Art of Belgrade, group exhibition, Belgrade, Serbia (2021). Nemanja Milenković also participated in the retrospective exhibition of the Led Art group titled ReCAPITULACION: Disobedient Objects/Subjects 1992–2022, Museum of Contemporary Art of Vojvodina, which he co-curated alongside other core team members. Nemanja Milenković’s residency is made possible with support from the Trust for Mutual Understanding. #ResidencyUnlimited #ArtistsInResidence #RUresidency #ArtResidency by @___yvaa___
Introducing the Artists in Residence joining us this September! Milo Masoničić (@milo_make_stuff) is the recipient of the 2025 Milčik Award for Young Visual Artists in Montenegro. Sampling sits at the core of Milo Masoničić’s practice, functioning both as a tool and as a way of perceiving the world. His work spans experimental film, video, sound, and digital media, drawing on processes of montage, appropriation, archiving, and remixing. By working with fragments displaced from their original narratives, Masoničić constructs new visual and digital landscapes from materials that are already familiar or recognizable. Recurring motifs from different sources are layered and reassembled, creating rhythm through irregular loops that partially repeat while subtly shifting with each iteration. Although the materials and methods vary, Masoničić’s practice consistently returns to themes of childhood, time and aging, nature, and technology, exploring the fragile relationships between memory, repetition, and transformation. Milo Masoničić’s residency is made possible with support from the Trust for Mutual Understanding. #ResidencyUnlimited #ArtistsInResidence #RUresidency #ArtResidency by @___yvaa___
Featuring RU artist-in-residence Krsto Gligorjadis (@krstogligorjadis) in the RU voices interview series 🎤 Krsto Gligorjadis is a multidisciplinary visual artist and performer whose work fuses ritual, myth, and contemporary questions of masculinity, shaped by the chauvinistic context in which he lives and works. Trained in law, pedagogy, graphic design, and visual arts, his interdisciplinary practice bridges gender rights, societal critique, and personal transformation. Through performance, installation, and participatory works, Gligorjadis explores how private emotions become public reflection, questioning what it means to be a man today. His body-centered practice functions as a therapeutic ritual, transforming trauma into embodied artwork and creating spaces of empathy, accountability, and healing.  Krsto was part of the exhibition “Home, Wound, Growing” at RU House at Colonels Row, Building #404B, on Governors Island (@governorsisland). The installation of “The Pants” presents two videos – an earlier film and a new one shot on Governors Island – depicting the artist walking in long red pants, also installed in the house. Referencing the now obsolete rite of passage of breeching, marking young boys’ transition into their first pair of pants, the piece investigates the role of a man in today’s society. The original performance consists of three acts: walking with the pants, recognizing social expectations; washing them as a symbol of responsibility; and hanging them, challenging traditional roles, and addressing wounds and growing. #residencyunlimited #artistinresidence #ruresidency by @___yvaa___
Introducing the Artists in Residence joining us this August! Norbert Kuki (@saint.lambo) is one of the 2026 laureates of the Oskar Čepan Award (@oskarcepan) for contemporary art in Slovakia. Norbert Kuki is a Roma artist from Slovakia. With a background in visual art and music (hip-hop/rap), he uses art to define contemporary Roma identity and as a tool for preserving, disseminating, and explaining Roma culture. His work draws on the Romani language, stories, and legends, which he explores from multiple perspectives. Recently, he has focused on questions related to what it means when a language becomes official, how translation functions, the impact of globalization, and the role of music in sustaining language. He was a participant of a group exhibition Smoke & Mirrorsat Pálffy Palace – Bratislava City Gallery, Slovakia (2025-2026). He is often a part of screening programs, and in 2025, he participated in screening and discussion of Kambium 1492 + Filozofia Vagabundstva (Philosophy of Vagabondism) at Žilina-Záriečie Station, Žilina, Slovakia. Norbert Kuki’s residency is made possible with support from the Trust for Mutual Understanding. #ResidencyUnlimited #ArtistsInResidence #RUresidency #ArtResidency by @___yvaa___
Introducing the Artists in Residence joining us this August! Nika Erjavec (@nika.erjavec) is the winner of the 2025 OHO Award (@p74gallery). Nika Erjavec is an interdisciplinary artist focused on the ways sensory languages and systems shape and challenge modes of sensing. Grounded in research and hands-on experimentation, she is currently exploring urban wilderness and working with the physicality of vibration and light, creating interactive installations that probe perception and our idea of reality. Her most recent solo exhibition (un)objectivity (2024) was presented at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Ljubljana. Nika Erjavec has two permanent installations: the interactive light ambient Cellular Landscapes (2024) in front of the University Medical Centre Ljubljana and the interactive sound installation with Doroteja Erhatič V/Posluh (2022) at the Slovenian Institute of Chemistry in Ljubljana. During her master’s studies, she received the highest award of the Academy for her series of installations and hybrid artistic research (2019). Nika Erjavec is a member of the teaching staff at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design, University of Ljubljana in the Video, Animation and New Media department. Since 2014, she has been actively exhibiting in the local and international context. Nika Erjavec’s recent solo exhibitions include Transmitted, Spitalkirche St. Katharina, Re.Light festival, Regensburg, Germany (2026) and (Un)objectivity, Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova (MSUM), Ljubljana, Slovenia (2024). Nika Erjavec’s residency is made possible with support from the Trust for Mutual Understanding. #ResidencyUnlimited #ArtistsInResidence #RUresidency #ArtResidency by @___yvaa___
Featuring RU artist-in-residence Milena Ivić (@mileenaivic) in the RU voices interview series 🎤 Milena Ivić is an artist, designer and activist based in Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina. She works across various media, such as public intervention, installation, objects, performance, and video. Her practice examines the paradox of freedom in a post-war divided country, within political, economic, religious, ethno-national, and cultural contexts. Experiences of institutional censorship in her city of residence have influenced her practice to occupy public space. Employing conceptual, performative, and feminist strategies through a provocative and socially engaged approach, she continuously explores whether art can disrupt dominant paradigms and intervene in reality, going beyond institutional confines. Milena was recently featured in the group exhibtion Living Room Portfolio: Enchanted House at RU House on Governors Island. The exhibition also featured “Letters to Irena”, an ongoing participatory and activist project by Ivić, where she invites audiences to send letters to Irena Karić – a woman incarcerated for killing her husband as a response to prolonged domestic violence against her and their four children, despite being reported to the authorities. The artist critically examines gender-based power imbalance, placing the burden on women who survive abuse, and the perpetuation and normalization of patriarchal violence as opposed to structural prevention. #residencyunlimited #artistinresidence #ruresidency by @___yvaa___
Introducing the Artists in Residence joining us this July! Domagoj Burilović (@domagoj.burilovic) is a finalist of the 2025 Radoslav Putar Award (@isuicazg). Burilovic is a Croatian photographer. In his practice, he explores the political and social issues of Slavonia (region of Croatia) through local history, culture and migrations. He works with digital photography and its manipulation to create liminal spaces, build atmosphere, and describe the psychological and social landscape of the community in which he lives. Domagoj’s solo exhibitions include Dorf, Gallery Karas, Zagreb, Croatia (2025); Dorf, SC Gallery, Zagreb, Croatia (2023); Post Factum & Tilyen Mucik: Flora Femina, Photon gallery, Ljubljana, Slovenia (2019); Post factum, Museum of Arts and Craft, Zagreb, Croatia (2018). He has been part of many group exhibitions, among these Sarajevo Photography Festival, National Gallery of BiH (2025); Exhibition of the Finalists of the 2025 Radoslav Putar Award Competition, Salon Galić, Split, Croatia (2025); Sony World Photography Awards exhibitions (2022); HT Award, Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb, Croatia (2019); Triennial of Expanded Media, Belgrade, Serbia (2019). He was one of the finalists of the 2025 Radoslav Putar Award and has received awards such as Sarajevo Photography Festival – conceptual 3rd place (2025); Sony World Photography Award (professional) 1st place – architecture (2022); Grand Prix Rovinj Photodays (2017). Domagoj Burilović’s residency is made possible with support from the Trust for Mutual Understanding. #ResidencyUnlimited #ArtistsInResidence #RUresidency #ArtResidency by @___yvaa___
Introducing the YVAA artists who will be doing their residencies at Residency Unlimited (@residencyunlimited) in 2026: Norbert Kuki (@saint.lambo) is one of the 2026 laureates of the Oskar Čepan Award (@oskarcepan) for contemporary art in Slovakia that provides a residency in New York. Norbert’s residency at RU takes place from August - September 2026. Norbert Kuki is a Roma artist with a background in visual art and music (hip-hop/rap), he uses art to define contemporary Roma identity and as a tool for preserving, disseminating, and explaining Roma culture. His work draws on the Romani language, stories, and legends, which he explores from multiple perspectives. Recently, he has focused on questions related to what it means when a language becomes official, how translation functions, the impact of globalization, and the role of music in sustaining language. He was a participant of a group exhibition Smoke & Mirrors at Pálffy Palace – Bratislava City Gallery, Slovakia (2025-2026). He is often a part of screening programs, and in 2025, he participated in screening and discussion of Kambium 1492 + Filozofia Vagabundstva (Philosophy of Vagabondism) at Žilina-Záriečie Station, Žilina, Slovakia. #ResidencyUnlimited #YVAA #ContemporaryArt #NewYorkCity by @___yvaa___
RU Exhibition: Living Room Portfolio: Enchanted House Join us for two weekends of artistic interventions by RU resident artists, Milena Ivić (@mileenaivic), Paula Subercaseaux (@paulasubx), and Jana Zatvarnická (@jana.zatvarnicka) at the RU House on Governors Island (@governorsisland). Curated by Data Chigholashvili (@datachme), Curator of Residency Unlimited, “Enchanted House” is the fourth edition of “Living Room Portfolio” – an experimental exhibition format that reflects on residencies as experiences of exchange, and incorporates an open studio format. 📅 On view: June 20-21, 27-28 | 11am-5pm Weekday visits by appointment 📍Location: RU House at Colonels Row, Building #404B on Governors Island While showcasing artworks throughout the house, the artists and the curator will also be temporary “hosts” in the space, creating possibilities for engagement and discussion. Don’t miss the opportunity to visit the house to meet the “hosts” and see the works on select days: June 20-21 / Milena Ivić, Paula Subercaseaux June 27-28 / Milena Ivić, Jana Zatvarnická June 20 and 28 / Curatorial walkthroughs by Data Chigholashvili “Living Room Portfolio: Enchanted House” continues meditations on interconnected topics of body and home, and brings together artworks with strong female perspectives. Creating a somewhat mysterious atmosphere in this former residential house, the works rethink the notion of home – as a physical structure, as a body, or on the move, transcending through different memories and emotions, as well as being a safe place or one devoid of the sense of security. The house on the island becomes enchanted with the exhibition that interplays with different connotations of this very word, suggesting that comfort and protection associated with home can also change when subjected to external forces. “Living Room Portfolio: Enchanted House” ponders how separate entities can belong together and how collectivity can become an obstacle or even unsafe. Exhibition visuals by @mileenaivic #ResidencyUnlimited #ArtExhibition #Opening #governorsisland enchantedhouse by @___yvaa___

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