Image: Kunsthalle Bremen
The Kunsthalle Bremen will present the 50th edition of the Pauli Prize from 8 August to 4 October 2026, bringing eight nominated artists together in a competition exhibition before a jury names the winner during the run of the show. The prize, which is awarded to artists living in the German-speaking world for an outstanding contribution to the latest art of the present, carries prize money of €30,000 and is regarded by the institution as one of the most important awards for contemporary art in Germany.
According to the Kunsthalle Bremen, the 2026 nominees are Jan Albers, Christiane Baumgartner, Harry Hachmeister, Annette Kelm, Caroline Kryzecki, Phung-Tien Phan, Liesl Raff and Anike Joyce Sadiq. Their work will be shown together in the exhibition, after which the jury will select the prizewinner over the course of the presentation. The jury for 2026 comprises Yilmaz Dziewior, director of Museum Ludwig in Cologne; artist Asta Gröting; Roland Mönig, director of the Von der Heydt-Museum in Wuppertal; Susanne Pfeffer, director of the Museum für Moderne Kunst in Frankfurt am Main; and Hilke Wagner, director of the Albertinum in Dresden.
The Pauli Prize has a long history at the Kunsthalle Bremen. The museum notes that it was established more than 70 years ago by the Roselius family and has, for more than 40 years, continued through the support of a private circle of committed Kunstverein members. That circle, together with the Senator for Culture and, since 1992, Sparkasse Bremen, helps finance not only the award money but also the exhibition, the catalogue and the acquisition of a work by the winning artist for the Kunstverein’s collection.
The institution says the prize procedure is designed to emphasize transparency and neutrality. Six curators, the director of the Kunsthalle Bremen and the Pauli Prize’s donor circle each independently propose one artistic position, producing the final list of eight nominees. Those artists then present their work in the competition exhibition in Bremen, where the jury ultimately determines the winner. The museum describes the award as one that has helped define the profile of contemporary art in Germany over several decades.
The 2026 edition also underscores the prize’s institutional significance within the Kunsthalle Bremen’s broader programme. In the same summer and autumn season, the museum is also showing ‘Mehr Frauen! Bremer Künstlerinnen auf Papier’ from 22 July to 8 November 2026, a research-based presentation of 60 works by women artists from Bremen, and ‘Remix. Photographie – Fiktion und Wahrheit’, on view through 28 February 2027, which expands the museum’s collection display with historical and contemporary photography. But the Pauli Prize remains the institution’s central competitive exhibition for the year.
The museum lists previous Pauli Prize winners including Gabriele Stötzer, Karimah Ashadu, Ulrike Müller, Emeka Ogboh, Nina Beier, Daniel Knorr, Thea Djordjadze, Ulla von Brandenburg, Clemens von Wedemeyer, Tino Sehgal, Olafur Eliasson and Wolfgang Tillmans. The 2026 exhibition opens on 8 August and runs through 4 October 2026 at the Kunsthalle Bremen in Bremen.
