Hey Grand Rapids! ArtPrize is Almost Here & This is What’s On Our Radar

We Read (ALMOST) Every ArtPrize 2026 Entry.

These Are the Ones We Can’t Stop Thinking About.

ArtPrize doesn’t open until September 18, but we’ve been living in it for weeks already!

Building the map, sorting entries, and reading through hundreds and hundreds of artist descriptions to figure out what’s landing where.

Somewhere in all that, certain things kept catching our eye.

That’s what this page is. It isn’t a ranking or a best-of list, just the stuff that made us stop scrolling and say oh, that might be one I have to see. They are the pieces that made us wonder.

Now, fair warning: we haven’t seen any of it in person. Nobody has yet. And a piece can read one way on paper and in pictures and land completely differently in the room.

Plus, something we scrolled right past could turn out to be the one everybody’s talking about by week two. We’ll find out in September along with you. But in the meantime, enjoy the anticipation of the things below.

We’ll keep adding to this as more turns up over the next few weeks, so check back.

PS – if you’re an ArtPrize artist, you can tell us about your piece here!