Kunstpreis der Kunststiftung NRW – Nam June Paik Award 2026

In the organizer's words:

In collaboration with the Kunstmuseum Gelsenkirchen, the Kunststiftung NRW Art Prize - Nam June Paik Award 2026 will be presented to the artist Michael Beutler (*1976, lives and works in Berlin and Aachen). The internationally renowned prize is endowed with 25,000 euros.

Michael Beutler is being honored for the expansive installation "Tapetenwechsel". It transforms the former industrial villa of the Kunstmuseum Gelsenkirchen into an artistic and artisanal production facility - a multi-storey workshop in which waste paper is processed into sculptural objects. The production process itself becomes a central component of the exhibition. Machines, tools and production processes remain visible and make the transformation of the material directly tangible.

A sponsorship prize will also be awarded as part of the art prize. It goes to the artist and curator Lisa Klosterkötter (*1990, lives and works in Cologne). For the Kunstmuseum Gelsenkirchen, she is developing the multi-part exhibition and event format "Ein Dorf" (A Village), which deals with forms of community, neighborhood and public coexistence. Readings, artistic interventions and performative formats in indoor and outdoor spaces take up the museum's self-image as a place of reflection and experience.