Krupp Foundation awards three catalogue awards “Catalogues for Young Artists”
As part of its ‘Catalogues for Young Artists’ programme, which has been running since 1982, the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Foundation is awarding three prizes this year. The awards, each worth up to €40,000, go to Cihan Çakmak, Joshua Leon and Adrianna Ramić. The winners will exhibit their work at Museum Morsbroich in Leverkusen, Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen in Düsseldorf as well as the Portikus, Frankfurt am Main, and at Kunstverein für Mecklenburg und Vorpommern in Schwerin. The jury consisted of Dr Elena Agudio, director of Villa Romana, Florence, Prof. Dr Ursula Ströbele, professor of art history with a focus on contemporary art at the HBK Braunschweig, Dr Nico Anklam, director of the municipal museums of the city of Recklinghausen, and Dr Matthias Mühling, director of the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich.
About the artists
The artistic work of Cihan Çakmak (*1993) is characterised by personal experiences and autobiographical narratives, which the artist expresses in photographs, video and sound works, and drawings. In her work, she deals with questions of identity, traumatic experiences, feminist self-empowerment, migration, and empowerment. The catalogue will be the first comprehensive monograph on Cihan Çakmak, following on from her artist’s book ‘Ez fraktal / I am similar’, published in 2025. The exhibition ‘Cihan Çakmak. like a warrior’ will be on view at Museum Morsbroich in Leverkusen from 12 July to 8 November 2026.
The artist Joshua Leon (*1990) combines artistic practice with text-based works. At the centre of his exhibition is a single photograph from his mother’s photo archive. Taking this as his starting point, the artist explores Jewish identity and family history, looking at his mother’s work as a costume designer as well as the tailoring trade and the textile trade. The exhibition will be realised in Feburary 2027 by the Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Düsseldorf, and Portikus, Frankfurt am Main, as a two-part, simultaneous exhibition and publication project. This is his first institutional solo presentation outside the United Kingdom and also the first collaboration between the two institutions. The catalogue is conceived as a central link between the two exhibitions and presents Joshua Leon’s artistic work and writing comprehensively for the first time.
Adriana Ramić (*1989) is having her first solo exhibition at an institution in Germany with her show at Kunstverein für Mecklenburg und Vorpommern in Schwerin. In her multidisciplinary, conceptual works, the artist explores transcultural and hybrid forms of knowledge as well as digital ecologies. In doing so, she deals with more than human entities as well as post-migrant narratives. The catalogue concept focuses on the critical reflection and reconfiguration of socially relevant systems of information and image cultures, which are currently being put to the test more than ever before by artificial intelligence and deep fakes. This is reflected in the design of the catalogue, for example in its AI-supported layout and text compositions. The exhibition by Adriana Ramić will be on view from 31 January to 12 April 2026.