Painter Natalia Babarovic is the winner of the 2026 Plagio Award for Artistic Creativity. She received the honor on Thursday, October 8, at a ceremony at the Museum of Visual Arts (MAVI) in Santiago.
According to El Mostrador, Fundación Plagio is presenting this award for the fourth consecutive year. It recognizes Chilean authors with careers spanning more than three decades in literature or the visual arts whose work has broken new ground. According to ADN Radio, the prize includes $3 million and a piece designed by artist Rosario Perriello.
Babarovic was born in Santiago in 1966 and began exhibiting in the early nineties. She studied at the University of Chile, where her teachers included painters Adolfo Couve and Gonzalo Díaz, according to ADN Radio.
Her work revisits classic genres such as portraiture and landscape to challenge them, combining them with photography and video. El Mostrador also highlights the connection between her painting and memory.
She has exhibited in Chile, Great Britain, Belgium, France, the United States and Peru. Her works are in the permanent collections of the National Museum of Fine Arts, the Museum of Contemporary Art and MAVI.
One of her most visible works is the mural El sitio de Rancagua, which she painted with Voluspa Jarpa between 1992 and 1994. It was commissioned by the State Railways Company (EFE) and remains in the hall of Rancagua railway station.
Upon receiving the award, Babarovic said that painting has been "a place of questions rather than certainties" for her. She also credited her work with young artists in the workshops she leads for the continuity of her artistic practice.
Fundación Plagio's general coordinator, Soledad Camponovo, explained that the award seeks to bring visibility to creators with significant works "who have remained on the margins".
The jury had five members: actress and writer Nona Fernández, journalist Catalina Mena, photographer Julia Toro (the winner in 2024), writer Rafael Gumucio and Carmen García Palma, the foundation's director. The other finalists were poets Nadia Prado and Tomás Harris, writer Jorge Marchant and visual artist Arturo Duclos.
Starting Friday, October 9, you can visit "Del espacio de acá" at the Salvador Allende Museum of Solidarity. The exhibition brings together Babarovic and artists from Taller 916. The sources did not report opening hours or the admission price.
