Seventeen artists were shortlisted for the 2026 Kitto Artist Prize, run with The Koppel Project, and we have been introducing them one at a time. Two of them, Kat Easto and René Lazový, are building work that only resolves once you are standing inside it, which makes the studio the more interesting place to meet them.
Both show at ANNEX from 3 to 6 September, alongside the rest of the finalists and a one-night film programme.
Kat Easto
Kat Easto came to art through set design, and it shows in the way she builds. Dreams of Inertion: the Discovery of a Parallel World, and the Portal in Croydon that led me there is a room constructed whole, a low ceiling, a strip light, a blue door standing slightly ajar. Working across painting, photography, digital media and installation, her practice puts audiences inside spaces that feel familiar and faintly wrong at the same time.
The piece is assembled in the studio before it is ever installed, which is the only way to know whether a room like this holds together.
René Lazový
René Lazový works across sculpture, photography and moving image, on climate, technology and what we are doing to the natural world. Slavic Girl, Slavic Boy is quieter than that description suggests: two portraits of young Slavs held in near expressionless stillness, interrupted only by a single tear.
Installed in Bratislava, the two faces are mounted on steel poles that rise off the floor and hold them at head height, so you meet them where you would meet a person. The pictures are small, the room is not, and the distance between the two is the work.
Seeing the work
The group show and film night run at ANNEX, The Koppel Project's gallery at Elephant and Castle, live to the public from 3 to 6 September. Entry is free.
Every finalist receives a fee, a one-hour technical consultation with the KitMapper team, and promotion across Kitto and Koppel channels. One takes the prize itself, up to £1,000 of Kitto equipment hire towards a future project and a full day with the team to plan it.