Tom of Finland Emerging Artist Competition 2026

Originally from California, he began his creative journey with a focus on commercial art, studying graphic design at the Academy of the Arts. However, he ultimately found his passion in the world of fashion, where he decided to channel his talents to enhance human dignity. His mission is to uplift the underrepresented through the transformative power of art and design. He was named one of TIME 100’s Most Influential People of 2025.

Jess Cuevas is a multimedia artist, creative director, and mixed-media visionary residing in Los Angeles. Known for his innovative work that distorts reality, Jess has collaborated with major brands and created artwork for Madonna. An American artist with Latin American roots, Jess’s work offers a profound commentary on US society through a minority lens, creating inclusive and diverse imagery that occupies space and amplifies visibility.

Peaches is an iconic musician, producer, director, and performance artist, Peaches first catapulted to stardom with her 2000 debut, The Teaches of Peaches, which introduced the world to her sexually transgressive, fiercely assertive, and utterly captivating persona. In addition to her musical output, Peaches has directed over 20 videos, co-curated a photo book of her life, created a host of immersive installations and performative works, and penned an electro-rock opera which was adapted into a film.

Jack Pierson employs photography, collage, sculptural assemblage and installation in pursuit of love, longing, kinship, poetry, celebration, youth, fantasy and identity. The artist’s mode of non-hierarchical cultural compilation and a process of impulse-led editing allows Pierson to create personal and universal narratives across his multidisciplinary practice. Pierson’s approach also applies to his photography and ongoing accumulations of imagery, which evoke shared notions of reminiscence and desire.

Stefano Pilati is an Italian fashion designer who was at Yves Saint Laurent, Ermenegildo Zegna and Miu Miu. He has worked with Nino Cerruti, Tom Ford and Giorgio Armani. His environmentally friendly space, which he called “the opium experience,” featured reddish amber lacquer applied to the ceiling and wall panels. The rich hue was reminiscent of the shade used in the packaging of YSL’s perfume Opium. His designs have earned widespread praise and Pilati subsequently created his own line, Random Identities: He described the clothing as “genderless and seasonless”.

Pietro Spirito is an Italian artist based in Paris. He was the Grand Prize Winner of the 2024 Tom of Finland Emerging Artist Competition. He studied painting at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera in Milan and lives and works between Berlin and Paris. His mission is to create art that not only beautifies but also stimulates, challenges, and inspires. His work invites viewers to look beyond the surface and confront their own perceptions of identity and desire.

Mickalene Thomas is a celebrated multidisciplinary artist best known for her portraits of Black women. Her bold practice—spanning painting, photography, collage, video, and installation—explores the complexities of Black female identity, beauty, and empowerment. In 2023, she made history as the first Black Queer femme artist to have a scholarship endowed in her name at the Yale University School of Art—her alma mater—cementing her influence not only as an artist but as a changemaker in arts education. Thomas’s work is featured in major museum collections worldwide reflecting her powerful contribution to shaping contemporary visual culture.

Gray Wielebinski Is a visual artist living and working in London, UK. Wielebinski works in a variety of mediums, incorporating sculpture, collage, installation, drawing, video, performance, conceptual research and more. The process of collaging runs through his practice in many forms – reconfiguring and transforming iconography and visual codes that interrogate dominant frameworks and belief systems and propose alternatives. Wielebinski has exhibited widely at institutions and galleries internationally and was an artist-in-residence at Tom of Finland Foundation in 2024.