FLAD Drawing Award 2026 already has finalists. Meet the five selected artists

The five finalist artists of the FLAD Drawing Award 2026 are already known, an initiative that once again distinguishes excellence and innovation in the practice of contemporary drawing in Portugal. The works of Catarina Real, Inez Teixeira, Rudi Brito, Eduardo Matos and Tomás Cunha Ferreira will be on display at Drawing Room Lisboa, which takes place between October 22nd and 25th, at the National Society of Fine Arts, in Lisbon. The winner will be announced on October 25.

This year’s edition received more than 100 applications, from which five artists were selected to be part of the finalist exhibition. In addition to the opportunity to present their work at one of the main events dedicated to contemporary drawing, each finalist receives a production grant of 2,000 euros, intended for the preparation of the exhibition.

The winning artist of the FLAD Drawing Award 2026 will be distinguished with a prize of 20 thousand euros, reinforcing FLAD’s commitment to supporting contemporary artistic creation and valuing artists in Portugal.

Created to encourage artistic production and give visibility to new paths and practices in the field of drawing, the Prize has been establishing itself as a reference in the national visual arts panorama. The choice of this discipline also reflects its importance in FLAD’s Contemporary Art Collection, where drawing occupies a prominent place as an artistic language of experimentation and proximity to the creative gesture.

In previous editions, artists such as Pedro Tropa, Maria Capelo, Carla Filipe and Rosa Baptista were distinguished.

The five finalists of the FLAD Drawing Award 2026

Catarina Real

Born in Barcelos in 1992, Catarina Real works at the intersection between artistic practice and theoretical research in the expanded fields of drawing, writing and choreography. Her projects explore ways of thinking and building more collective ways of life, crossing artistic creation, critical thinking and research.

Inez Teixeira

Born in 1965, she lives and works in Lisbon, where she has developed an artistic career that has been exhibited regularly since the 1990s. Her work focuses on painting and drawing, exploring themes such as time, transience and trace. In his work, nature emerges as a privileged space for experience and reflection.

Rudi Brito

With a degree in Fine Arts from ESAD, he moved to Glasgow in 2013, where he joined the local art scene, returning to Lisbon six years ago. Her work explores the ethereal and the vulnerable through the use of materials that propose an approach to drawing that refuses its technical heritage.

Eduardo Matos

Born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1970, he lives and works in Lisbon. He grew up in the city of Porto, where he studied and began his professional activity as an artist in 1999. He is editor of the Inland Journal and curator of several projects. He was a scholarship holder of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and a founding member of the Olympic Hall.

Tomás Cunha Ferreira

He lives and works in Lisbon. His practice proposes zones of deviation and free circulation between painting and word, drawing and sound, taking the concepts of “quasi-painting” and “quasi-word”, formulated by the monk and concrete poet Dom Sylvester Houédard, as a way of reading different formats and supports.

The winner of the FLAD Drawing Award 2026 will be announced on October 25, during the Drawing Room Lisboa, which takes place between October 22 and 25, at the National Society of Fine Arts, in Lisbon.