Meet the nominees for the NN Art Award 2026: III Mandy Franca 

This year marks the tenth edition of the NN Art Award. The annual incentive prize of €10,000 is awarded to a talented artist who completed their education in the Netherlands and presents work at Art Rotterdam (27–29 March at Rotterdam Ahoy). The professional jury nominated four artists: Fiona Lutjenhuis (Galerie Fleur & Wouter), Tina Farifteh (Gallery Vriend van Bavink), Mandy Franca (Night Café Gallery) and Kyra Nijskens (Prospects / Mondriaan Fonds). From 14 March to 25 May 2026, work by all nominees will be on view at Kunsthal Rotterdam.  

In her multidisciplinary practice, Mandy Franca explores the friction and entanglement between the digital and the everyday. She grew up in Rotterdam-Zuid, where cultural diversity was the norm and contact with her family in Curaçao took place via a calling centre, a small shop in the 1990s and early 2000s in which you could make international phone calls for a fee. The clocks on the wall showing different time zones reflected not only physical distance but also two realities existing simultaneously. From an early age, Franca developed a keen awareness of what technology can do to proximity, memory and identity.

In her artistic practice, she examines how digitalisation, migration and globalisation shape our relationship to everyday objects, places, traditions, images, memories and domestic environments, often without us even noticing. How can these be preserved? Franca believes that the individual always points towards the collective. She seeks not only to revalue what appears ordinary and grant it additional weight, but also to consider how its experience connects to broader, shared realities. In this way, personal experiences are placed within a larger fabric of shared needs and mutual dependence. Franca pays particular attention to care, connection and the body as an archive. Our relationship with the more-than-human world also runs as a continuous thread throughout her practice. 

Franca starts out with fleeting snapshots taken on her smartphone, often in low resolution as she embraces the technology that is available to her. In doing so, she refers to Hito Steyerl’s essay on the ‘poor image’ as a democratic counterpoint to the ‘perfect’ visual language of the commercial world, where circulation and accessibility outweigh technical perfection. Franca explores what digital materiality means and how an image relates to surface, reproduction and tactility. She gives form to these questions by connecting analogue and digital processes, drawing, printing and layering images to reveal a complexity in which the digital and the physical are inseparably intertwined. A tension emerges between the reproducible image and the singular gesture that transforms it into a unique work. Franca frequently experiments with different media and printing techniques. In earlier works, she combined NASA imagery with her own photography, video and sound. 

Mandy Franca was born in Rotterdam in 1989. She studied at the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam and at the Royal College of Art in London, followed by a residency programme at the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten in Amsterdam. Her work has been shown at Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Saatchi Gallery in London and TENT Rotterdam and is included in the collections of Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and the Rijksakademie. Her work recently appeared in the publication ‘Vitamin P4: New Perspectives in Contemporary Painting’ by Phaidon Press. 

Mandy, can you tell us more about the work you are presenting at Art Rotterdam and at Kunsthal Rotterdam? 
The work on view at Art Rotterdam and at Kunsthal Rotterdam forms part of a larger series I began in 2023 titled "An Area of Land Dominated by Trees". I was inspired by the opening sentence of Wikipedia’s description of a forest. The titles function partly as descriptive, almost encyclopaedic designations, as if they were a biological registration of a moment. At the same time, several titles carry a personal charge, such as "Fluttering Leaves Make the Wind Blow", derived from a remark by my sister-in-law, or "My Grandmother’s House as a Place of Shelter", which is also included in the presentation at Art Rotterdam in the booth of Night Café.

I am interested in multiple realities and forms of intelligence that extend beyond the human, and I situate both contemporary technologies and the natural world within a more-than-human context. Trees are social beings capable of complex communication, challenging the notion that intelligence is exclusively human. This invites a reconsideration of our relationship to nature and to contemporary technologies, expanding our understanding of intelligence. The emphasis placed in the West on individualism underestimates the importance of community, collaboration and the recognition of our mutual dependence and shared experiences. Understanding our interconnectedness is crucial to our survival. In this work, trees do not function as a metaphor but as a community from which we as humans can learn. 

The images in this series stem from my personal archive, and were taken over the past years with my iPhone in various places and at different moments in my life, including London, the Vondelpark in Amsterdam, the Kralingse Bos in Rotterdam, the grounds of the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten and my grandmother’s house in Curaçao. This geographical and temporal layering reflects how my work comes into being, through overlaps between place, memory and present experience. 

In both presentations, I consciously choose a non-hierarchical way of installing the works. They appear at different heights and extend across multiple walls, creating space for discovery and movement. No material, format or technique is subordinate to another. 

My interest in community and interconnectedness is not only conceptual but also deeply personal. My parents were born in Curaçao and I grew up in Rotterdam-Zuid in a multicultural environment. My class at the Christian primary school consisted of children from diverse cultural backgrounds and each week began with prayer, each in their own way. As a child, I experienced differences in language, religion and ritual as self-evident and fascinating, it was my normal. As an adult, I became more aware of how this cultural diversity can come under pressure or meet resistance in society. For me, such cross-pollination represents a form of social intelligence. In that sense, I see a parallel with the forest. It reminds me that as a planet, humans, animals, plants and even technology are interconnected and dependent on one another. 

What are your plans for 2026? 
At the moment, I am working towards my first solo museum exhibition, which I am very much looking forward to. In May, my solo ‘I Breathe an Endless Universe in Me’, curated by Delany Boutkan, will open at Stedelijk Museum Schiedam. The exhibition forms an important anchor point within my practice and directly extends an ongoing line of research that began with ‘On Being Light and Liquid’ (Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten, Amsterdam, 2024) and continued in ‘Why Do I Stare at the Sky and Long for the Clouds’ (Night Café, London, 2025).

Throughout this series, clouds, air and the colour blue recur as motifs that function as connective and communal elements and that emerged after a prolonged period of illness and isolation. I lay in bed for months, staring at the sky. As even the usual activities one might turn to during illness were not an option for me, the vast sky outside my window became my connection to the world beyond. The ever-changing sky disrupted the repetitive rhythm of my days and brought moments of reflection and wonder. I reflected on the contrast between my own immobility and the fluidity of the world around me. As I observed the movement of clouds, historically a symbol of freedom, I considered how such freedom is always contextual and situation-bound. The presentation at Stedelijk Museum Schiedam includes photographic and video works taken with a mobile phone from my own archive as well as in collaboration with family members, digitally simulated imagery, painting, sound and video works. In this exhibition, I explore how presence is experienced when people, places and times are separated. Breath and air play a central role. 

My work has also been included in the recently published ‘Vitamin P4: New Perspectives in Contemporary Painting’ by Phaidon Press. The ‘Vitamin’ series focuses on contemporary artists working with painting and brings together around 100 artists from across the globe who, according to the editors, have made a fresh, distinctive or innovative contribution to the genre over the past five to ten years. 

In addition, several exhibitions abroad are planned for the autumn and I intend to take time mid-year to rest in Curaçao, in between projects. 

Can you describe how you felt when you heard you had been nominated for the NN Art Award? 
I was quite surprised. The idea of applying came from my gallerist at Night Café, who was convinced I stood a chance of being selected. The fact that she recognised that potential in my work speaks to her intuition and commitment.

The news arrived at a particular moment: a day earlier I had learned that my grandmother had passed away after a short illness. The nomination therefore stood in stark contrast to how I was feeling at the time. I felt honoured yet also somewhat astonished. At the same time, given its timing, I see the nomination as an encouragement. I am grateful and it is an honour to be one of the four nominees selected from so many submissions. 

Which project would you immediately take up if you were to win the award?
Over the past years, my health has limited my ability to travel extensively. During an earlier period, I began collecting images of flowers from my personal archive. From this growing archive, I develop collages combined with oil pastel that refer to the traditional floral still life, while also revealing corporeality and fragmentation. For me, flowers embody both vulnerability and resilience. In time, I would like to travel to Curaçao to photograph and study flowers there. My parents grew up surrounded by this flora. By connecting this future archive with material I have gathered in recent years, I aim to bring together personal and geographical layers. They function as carriers of memory, presence and family history.

To explore that layering further and develop my work on a larger spatial scale, my dream is not so much to realise one specific project but to acquire a large-format printer. Printing already plays an important role in my practice, yet at present I depend on external workshops with the appropriate facilities, which requires planning well in advance. Having my own large-format printer would allow for greater spontaneity, flexibility and experimentation with materials, enabling me to broaden my practice. If I had access to this equipment in my own studio, it would not only accelerate the process but above all enrich it. It would open up possibilities for experimenting with layering, materials and combinations that currently remain out of reach. In this way, I hope to further develop my artistic practice and deepen the balance between experimentation and technical knowledge. 

The winner of the NN Art Award 2026 will be announced on Friday 27 March at Kunsthal Rotterdam. During this festive evening, all exhibitions, including the NN Art Award exhibition, will be freely accessible to invited guests.  

Written by Flor Linckens