art prize

Daria Kowalewska (1996) is a sculptor artist, she primarily creating ceramic sculptures and installations. She studied at the Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Fine Arts in Wroclaw. She received a master's degree for two fields of study (2023).

Daria has participated in exhibitions and workshops associated with Wroclaw. Her work was presented in solo exhibitions In Silence, I Grow at Hilleckes Gallery in Berlin (2025), Beyond Space at BWA in Wałbrzych (2024), and Rustling Imagination Bulvary in Wrocław, as well as others at the NM in Gdańsk and the Rothko Museum. She is a laureate at the OP Young 22 program and the exhibition Life Takes on a Different Meaning. In 2025, she won the Gold Award at the Latvian Ceramics Biennale. In 2026, she received the Young Poland scholarship.

In her works, she addresses themes of material transformation, the forces of nature, destruction, and decay. She focuses on the processes of change occurring in the natural world and their impact on the matter.

Ioulia Chante (1991) is a Greek architect and ceramicist based in Malta and the founder of Babau Ceramics. She holds a Master of Architecture from Democritus University of Thrace, Greece (2017), and has worked as a design assistant and maker during her studies. In 2018, she relocated to Malta, where her experience in the construction sector deepened her interest in material practicality, local craftsmanship, and built heritage.

Ioulia's ceramic practice began in 2019 with wheel-throwing courses at Space for Clay, followed by an expanded focus on sculptural and handbuilding techniques from 2020 onwards. Between 2023 and 2025, she dedicated herself fully to her work as a ceramicist. In 2023, she exhibited for the first time at the Mara Show with Marie Gallery 5 and Il-Lokal. In 2024, she presented her first solo exhibition, What’s Bugging You?, at MSA, and has since participated in group exhibitions, including Clay Craft Concept at MSA and Small Bones of Courage at Spazju Kreattiv.

Her multidisciplinary background informs a practice rooted in material exploration, craftsmanship, and emotional storytelling. Influenced by architecture, structure, and scenography, her work moves between simple forms and intricate miniature sculptures, often combined to create intimate domestic objects and artistic pieces that reflect on the human condition and contemporary societal pathologies, drawing inspiration from the Mediterranean heritage.

Sojeong You (1996) is a visual artist and sculptor based in Höhr-Grenzhausen, Germany. Working with traditional ceramics and digital fabrication, she explores how memories and forgotten narratives take physical form.

Her practice builds on what she calls digital archaeology. Beginning with personal photo archives, she reinterprets digitized images through chemical blurring as a physical response to digital weightlessness. She then translates these two-dimensional memories into 3D ceramic prints, intentionally exposing internal infill patterns such as gyroid or line structures to represent the unconscious mechanics of memory. Applying this approach to spatial sites and historical traces, she converts photographic data into fragile layered structures using stoneware and porcelain.

Based in a region with a long ceramic tradition, she uses technology as a bridge between digital data and physical material. By accepting the glitches, cracks, and raw layers of the printing process, she turns fleeting memories into tangible physical presences.