Alina Tenser, assistant professor of art in the Department of Art, Architecture and Design at Lehigh University, has been named a 2026 Guggenheim Fellow by the Board of Trustees of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the organization announced last week.

Tenser is one of 223 artists, scholars and scientists appointed to the foundation's 101st class of fellows. She was chosen from a pool of nearly 5,000 applicants — a year in which applications within the creative arts and humanities surged by 50 percent.

The Guggenheim Fellowship, established in 1925, is awarded to individuals who have demonstrated exceptional promise and a record of prior achievement in their fields. Each fellow receives a monetary stipend to pursue independent work under what the foundation describes as "the freest possible conditions."

"Alina exemplifies the kind of bold, boundary-pushing scholarship that the College of Arts and Sciences strives to foster," said Robert Flowers, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. "The Guggenheim Foundation's recognition is a powerful affirmation that Lehigh is home to faculty whose work is shaping creative and intellectual life far beyond our campus."

Born in Kyiv, Ukraine, in 1981, Tenser works across sculpture, video, performance and interactive engagement. Her practice centers on the concept of "affordances" — the physical characteristics that define how a body connects with and functions alongside an object. In its citation, the foundation noted that "Tenser's interest in affordances emerged from thinking about resourcefulness as a creative force — a sentiment propelled by her experiences of being an immigrant, one of observing, misunderstanding, and reinterpreting."

Tenser currently lives and works in Brooklyn, N.Y. Her work has been exhibited internationally, including solo exhibitions at HESSE FLATOW and Pioneer Works. Her practice has been covered in The New York Times, The New Yorker and Artforum, and she has held residencies at the Queens Museum and Lighthouse Works.

The 2026 cohort spans 55 scholarly disciplines and 97 academic institutions. Tenser joins 76 artists and fine arts researchers named this year. Since its founding, the Guggenheim Foundation has awarded nearly $450 million in fellowships to more than 19,000 individuals.