Foundwork

To initiate the Open Call for our 2026 Artist Prize, we’ll be introducing you to our five jurors, each of whom are celebrated leaders in the international contemporary arts community.

Our fourth juror, Stefan Benchoam (stefan benchoam), is an artist and exhibition-maker from Guatemala City with a strong interest in collaboration. As an artist, he has participated in exhibitions at La Casa Encendida, Madrid; , London; La Loseta, San Juan; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles; MAZ, Guadalajara; and MADC, San José, among others. He is co-founder of Buró de Intervenciones Públicas, which develops low-cost, high-impact projects in public spaces worldwide. He is also co-founder and director of Proyectos Ultravioleta, a multivalent hybrid space/gallery for contemporary art, and is co-founder/co-director of NuMu / Guatemala—Guatemala’s only contemporary art museum. As a writer, he has written for Mousse Magazine & Publishing and South as a State of Mind, as well as artist monographs including Carlos Amorales and Vivian Suter. (Portrait by Daniele Volpe.)

The Foundwork Artist Prize is our annual juried award to support outstanding artistic practices in any media. The honoree will receive an unrestricted $10,000 grant, studio visits with each jury member, and a published interview as part of our Dialogues program. Visit www.foundwork.art/artist-prize to learn more about how to participate. 

“I’m working within the languages of painterly abstraction and thinking about painting. I think all the work sits really uncomfortably between a photograph, a painting, and a print. It’s never exactly any of those things,” our 2025 Artist Prize winner .kuo tells in their conversation for our Dialogues program. “The indexical element is extremely important to me, but, ultimately, I want them to function as paintings, as abstract paintings, and to be something that doesn’t really resolve itself, but also engages the idea of image-making and images.” Read their expanded discussion about materiality and perception at www.foundwork.art/dialogues.
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Pictured here: “Water Lilies,” 2024; unique photochemical paintings on silver gelatin paper, silver gelatin prints, powder coated aluminum, patinated cast bronze and ceramic relief in aluminum frame (9 panels)
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