Young Masters is a not-for-profit international initiative which was launched in 2009 by gallerist Cynthia Valianti Corbett, founder of Cynthia Corbett Gallery.

Our mission is to support emerging artists from across the world, bringing their work to a wider audience through a triennial Art Prize independently judged by an illustrious panel. Young Masters has an international programme of touring exhibitions and fairs as well as maintaining a vibrant online presence that showcases our wide network.

This unique initiative highlights emerging artists of any gender, age, or nationality, working in any media, whose work responds to the art of the past.

In 2014 the Young Masters Maylis Grand Ceramic Prize was added to focus more attention on the growing interest in the collection of contemporary craft. 2017 saw the launch of the inaugural Young Masters Emerging Women Award. The fifth edition and 10th Anniversary Exhibition of the Prize took place in October 2019. In 2023 Young Masters returned after Covid-19 with its 6th edition of the Prize and its most culturally diverse and woman led open call yet with 75% of applicants being female-identifying artists.

Young Masters has provided a launching pad for over 350 artists alumni from all over the world. Important alumni include British ceramicist and curator Matt Smith, British painter Flora Yukhnovich, South-African artists Gigs Kgole and ceramicist Lucille Lewin, artist duo Ghost of a Dream and US-based Iranian Azita Moradkhani.