Applications open July 15, 2026. Deadline September 10, 2026.
- 2 x $1,000
- unrestricted grants
- 10 finalists
- featured + named
- Global
- open worldwide
The Dezi Art Prize is an initiative of Dezi, a career platform for visual artists. We believe artists need both funding and infrastructure, and that supporting working artists is inseparable from building the tools they need. This prize is where that belief starts: real money, no gatekeeping, in the hands of working artists.
Timeline
July 15, 2026
Applications open
September 10, 2026
Applications close
September 2026
Jury review
October 10, 2026
Winners announced
within 60 days of the announcement
Career consultations
July 15, 2026
Applications open
September 10, 2026
Applications close
September 2026
Jury review
October 10, 2026
Winners announced
within 60 days of the announcement
Career consultations
Unrestricted cash grant
$1,000
Yours to use however you want, with no strings. Awarded to each of the two winners.
What we ask in return
- Credit the Dezi Art Prize on new work made with the grant.
- Share the finished work within one year for a possible future Dezi exhibition.
Full artist profile
A dedicated profile across the Dezi website and social media.
Featured announcement
A featured post announcing you as a winner to our community.
Career audit
A 1:1 audit with the Dezi team using our career navigation framework.
Apart from the two winners, 10 finalists are named on the site, featured on Instagram, and included in the announcement. The three highest-ranked finalists also receive a free one-on-one consultation with the Dezi team.
An independent jury of working arts professionals, curators, gallerists, and practicing artists reviews every submission. Each entry is scored on four equally weighted criteria: quality of the work (craft, execution, and command of your medium), originality and point of view (a distinct voice and a fresh perspective), your artist statement (how clearly you articulate your practice and ideas), and your pitch (the strength and clarity of what you would do with the grant). Each juror scores independently, and the scores are averaged across the jury to build a shortlist. The two highest-ranked artists are named winners, and the next ten are named finalists. Selection is on artistic merit alone. This is a juried competition, not a lottery, and the jury’s decision is final.
Dr. Katerina Valdivia Bruch
Independent curator and arts writer based in Berlin, founder of ARTATAK.
artatak.net
Anahita Ghazvinizadeh
Cannes Cinefondation winner; filmmaker and assistant professor at SAIC.
SAIC profile
Christopher Sullivan
Animator, filmmaker, and professor at SAIC; Guggenheim and Rockefeller fellow.
IMDb
Yukti V. Agarwal
Head of Strategy and Growth for India Art Fair's Young Collectors' Programme and Founding Editor of Desi-gned Magazine.
hello.yuktiagarwal.com
Jessy Koeiman
Visual artist, curator, and educator based in Rotterdam; previously at Modern Art Oxford, Kunstinstituut Melly.
jessykoeiman.comOpen worldwide
Artists anywhere in the world are welcome to apply, including international and non-US artists.
Age 18 or older
Open to artists who are 18 and older at the time of applying.
Visual artists
You work in one of the eligible mediums listed below. No degree, gallery representation, or exhibition history is required.
One entry per artist
Each artist may submit a single entry per cycle.
Eligible mediums
How to apply
Upload your work
Up to 5 images or video links, each with a title, medium, year, and a short description.
Add your statements
A short artist statement with bio, and your pitch for what you would do with the grant.
Apply and submit!
Review everything, pay at checkout, and send your application.
Upload your work
Up to 5 images or video links, each with a title, medium, year, and a short description.
Add your statements
A short artist statement with bio, and your pitch for what you would do with the grant.
Apply and submit!
Review everything, pay at checkout, and send your application.
The fee is $30, and the whole thing takes about 15 minutes.
Student discount available upon request.
Please email nitya@dezi.work to get the student promo code. If you are not a student and the fee is a hurdle for any other reason, email us and we will work out a waiver.
Who is behind this
The Dezi Art Prize is an initiative of Dezi, a career support platform for visual artists launching in 2026. The prize reflects our founding belief that artists need both funding and infrastructure: supporting working artists is inseparable from building tools for them.
It is led by Nitya Mehrotra, a multidisciplinary creative whose practice bridges art, storytelling, and strategy, spanning animation and film, public art, gallery exhibition, and brand and marketing consulting. She is the founder of Stories by Strangers, an animated oral-history platform for survivors that she built into an international community, and has led marketing strategy for the literary-arts nonprofit Stomping Grounds. As a designer she led the design of the City of Chicago’s Track(ed) Changes CTA public-art project, covered by The New York Times, CBS, and Time Out Chicago; as a filmmaker she directed the festival-recognized documentary How I Survived Death; and as an artist she has exhibited at Woman Made Gallery and the RISD Museum. A graduate of RISD and SAIC, her honors include three Illinois College Press Association awards.
Selected work
FAQ
You retain full copyright to your work. The jury’s decision is final. US winners provide a W-9; non-US winners provide a W-8BEN. If the submission platform has issues near the deadline, email nitya@dezi.work to submit. Read the full terms and conditions.
Two winners each receive a $1,000 unrestricted grant, and ten finalists are featured on the site and on Instagram. Deadline September 10, 2026.
Apply now