Kunstpreis junger westen 2025 – Malerei

In the organizer's words:

The art prize junger westen, named after the artists' group of the same name, is the oldest municipal award for pioneering art after 1945 in Germany. Founded in 1948 by the city of Recklinghausen, it has been open to the public since 1956 and is awarded every two years in changing categories, 2025 for painting. The jury selected 22 artists for the exhibition from 690 applications: Annabelle Agbo Godeau, Johanna Ehmke, Nicholas Grafia, Rahel grote Lambers, Monilola Olayemi Ilupeju, Lucas Kaiser, Tobias Kerger, Jody Korbach, Gašper Kunšič, Sojeong Lee, Janis Löhrer, Line Lyhne, Sol Namgung, Minh Phuong Nguyen, Matthias Noggler, Aduni Ogunsan, Jan-Luka Schmitz, Tariano Schneider, Rui Suzuki, Kiriakos Tompolidis, Salwa Wittwer and Seoyoung Yun. At the same time, she named Jeehye Song the winner of the 20,000 euro art prize. All the works in the exhibition are exemplary of what painting is today. As in the last two editions, the prizewinner will receive an entire floor of the Kunsthalle. This year, Jeehye Song will be on display on the middle floor, with the group exhibition of the nominees on the other two floors. In the year of the 75th anniversary of the Kunsthalle Recklinghausen, the 40th edition of the prize is also being celebrated.

"The jury has unanimously decided to award the prize to the artist Jeehye Song," says museum director Dr. Nico Anklam. "Her painting not only impresses with its extraordinary pictorial invention and formal precision, but also with a depth of content that goes far beyond a purely visual experience. Song's work moves impressively between painterly tradition, contemporary visual language and conceptual reflection - and she uses precisely this field of tension to raise central questions about the role of the artist and the function of the medium of painting in the present. In doing so, she remains deeply rooted, in the best sense, in the traditions of the genre of painting." The jury statement continues: "In her works, Jeehye Song combines elements of surrealism with a fine sense of composition, color and atmosphere. Her pictorial worlds show realities and imaginations, figurative elements are often in the process of dissolving. In her paintings, the surreal functions as a space for thought - as a place where the visible and the invisible, the personal and the collective, the concrete and the abstract enter into dialog with one another. Particularly noteworthy is the way Song reflects on and questions the medium of painting itself. Her works often refer to their own genesis, to painterly decisions, to doubts and revisions. In many works, the image seems to form or dissolve before our eyes: a process that not only demonstrates technical virtuosity, but also makes artistic positioning itself an issue. Who is actually painting here? What does it mean to create a picture today? What role does the artist play in the field of tension between authorship, narration and representation? Jeehye Song answers these questions with concrete images, but at the same time with an open, associative visual language that leaves room for the viewer. Her painting is neither self-sufficient nor affirmative, but searches for an attitude. In awarding her the art prize of the young west, the jury is honoring an artist who explores the possibilities of painting with great clarity, experimentation and intellectual depth. Jeehye Song's work is an important contribution to the current art scene and a promising outlook on what painting can be today and in the future."

Jeehye Song completed her studies at the Düsseldorf Art Academy in 2021 as a master student of Prof. Andreas Schulze. She has already received numerous awards and grants at home and abroad. She has also had solo and group exhibitions at home and abroad, including in Germany, Denmark, Finland, Italy, South Korea and the USA. She was already represented in the exhibition for the art prize junger westen for painting in 2019 and was shortlisted for the Paula Modersohn-Becker Art Prize in 2024.

This year's jury consisted of Prof. Shannon Bool, artist, Professor of Painting at the Kunsthochschule Mainz, Madeleine Frey, Director of the Max Ernst Museum, Brühl, Dr. Linda Walther, Director of the Josef Albers Museum Quadrat, Bottrop, Christoph Westermeier, Chairman of the Künstlerverein Malkasten, Düsseldorf, and Dr. Nico Anklam, Director of the Museums of the City of Recklinghausen and Director of the Kunsthalle, Holger Freitag, Chairman of the Committee for Culture, Science and City History of the City of Recklinghausen, Christoph Tesche, Mayor of the City of Recklinghausen and Kerstin Weber-Baumann, Research Assistant at the Kunsthalle Recklinghausen (representative).

The Kunstpreis junger westen is the first prize for the visual arts to be awarded by a German municipality since 1945. Initiated in 1948, it commemorates the junger westen group of artists founded a year earlier in Recklinghausen around the painters Gustav Deppe, Thomas Grochowiak, Emil Schumacher, Heinrich Siepmann, Hans Werdehausen and the sculptor Ernst Hermanns. It is awarded as a sponsorship prize of the city of Recklinghausen with the support of the Cultural Foundation of the Stadtsparkasse Recklinghausen. Thanks to additional funding from the Rotary Club Recklinghausen and the Ulrike and Bernd Tönjes Foundation, the prize money has been increased from 10,000 to 20,000 euros since 2023. This increase will remain in place for the next competitions until 2031.

The exhibition will open with an award ceremony on Saturday, September 20, 2025 at 5 pm in the Kunsthalle.

Public guided tours will take place on Sundays at 12 noon.

A catalog will be published at the end of the exhibition.

The Kunstpreis junger westen is sponsored by the Kulturstiftung der Stadtsparkasse Recklinghausen, the Rotary Club Recklinghausen and the Ulrike und Bernd Tönjes Stiftung.