International Awards for Art Criticism (IAAC 12) 2026
The Twelfth Edition of the International Awards for Art Criticism (IAAC 12) is open to candidates from anywhere in the world who write in Chinese or English about any contemporary art exhibition held anywhere in the world or online between 1 September 2025 and 31 August 2026.
Candidates are invited to submit a review of up to 1,500 words in English or 2,500 characters in Chinese on an exhibition of contemporary art. Submissions must not have been previously published elsewhere.
The First Prize consists of a cash award of €10,000 before tax, or the RMB equivalent of this amount, currently around RMB 80,000. There will be three Second Prizes, each worth €3,500 before tax, or the RMB equivalent, currently around RMB 30,000.
The value of the Awards is fixed in euros. International prize-winners may choose to receive payment in euros or RMB, calculated at the official exchange rate on the date payment is made.
The Organising Committee of the International Awards for Art Criticism aims to support independent critical coverage of contemporary art, free from the immediate pressures of the market, media and private patronage. The Awards seek to encourage strong writing, critical thinking, dialogue and research in China, the UK and further afield. The objectivity of the selection process is underpinned both by the recognised professionalism of the Chinese- and English-speaking jury members and by the strict anonymity of the judging process.
Application procedure
Candidates should log in to the official IAAC website, enter the relevant details and upload their review and any accompanying images. They may return to the site to add or amend information at any time before the submission deadline.
Closing date for entries: 14 September 2026, 24:00 UK time
Notes
Submissions must be no longer than 1,500 English words or 2,500 Chinese characters. Entries that vary in length by more than 10% above or below these limits are likely to be rejected.
Submissions must not have been published previously.
The final selection of prize-winners, along with approximately 20 texts for publication in print and online in the IAAC Exhibition Reviews Annual in early summer 2027, will be made by a high-profile international jury of five members. The jury changes each year and will meet in Shanghai in November or December.
Submissions may include up to three images of the exhibition under review, such as installation views or performance documentation. Any images submitted must be cleared for publication in advance and accompanied by full captions and acknowledgements.
Images are not required. Please submit them only where they are necessary to your discussion of the exhibition.
Reviews should be uploaded electronically as a single optimised PDF no larger than 4MB. The total email size, where applicable, should not exceed 5MB.
All entries will be anonymised before being sent to the judges. Please include your personal information and brief details of the exhibition in the application form for administrative purposes.
Publishing rights for all submitted texts must be assigned to the organisers
International Jury
The IAAC 12 international jury comprises five members:
Fiona Bradley, Director, Fruitmarket, Edinburgh.
Ben Eastham, art critic and novelist based in London, and Editor-in-Chief of e-flux Criticism.
Richard J. Williams, Professor of Contemporary Visual Cultures at the University of Edinburgh.
WANG Pu, Associate Professor of Chinese Literature and Culture, and Chair of the Department of German, Russian and Asian Languages and Literature at Brandeis University.
XIANG Zairong, Associate Professor of Comparative Literature and Director of Arts at Duke Kunshan University.
Enquiries
Enquiries should be addressed as follows:
Chinese-language enquiries
School of Philosophy, Fudan University
philo.fudan@gmail.com
English-language enquiries
School of Art and Humanities, Royal College of Art
iaac@rca.ac.uk