Kyiv's PinchukArtCentre has named the 21 artists and collectives shortlisted for the eighth edition of the Future Generation Art Prize, a $100,000 award for artists under 35 that has continued through nearly four years of war in Ukraine. The finalists were chosen from 12,488 applications sent in from more than 170 countries, and each will be commissioned to make new work for an exhibition in Kyiv, where a jury will pick the main winner and special prize recipients.

The shortlist spans painting, sculpture, photography, moving image, video games, performance and music. It includes Brazil-based painter Maxwell Alexandre, British multimedia artist Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley, Ivorian artist Ange-Frédéric Koffi, Puerto Rican visual and theatre artist Natalia Lassalle-Morillo, the Palestinian collective Osprey V, described as Gaza's first rock band, and US-born artist Yussef Agbo-Ola, who has spoken of elements of his practice as medicinal architecture.

Judges including Nicolás Cuello of the Museo de Arte Moderno in Buenos Aires, Hana Halilaj of the National Gallery of Kosovo and David Riley of The Kitchen in New York said they looked beyond conventional genres for artistic intent, rewarding urgency, curiosity and unconventional use of materials in response to climate emergency, migration, faltering institutions and accelerating technology.

The main prize divides into a $60,000 cash award and $40,000 invested in the winner's practice, with a further $20,000 special prize shared among up to five artists. Artistic director Björn Geldhof said the prize's continuation under bombardment was itself a statement: more than 100,000 people visited the centre's last exhibition, Joy, while Kyiv was under systematic attack, because art "gives us the ability to breathe" even in wartime. Founded by the Victor Pinchuk Foundation in 2009, the prize accepts free applications from any artist aged 35 or under, with no nomination required.