In collaboration with the Kunstmuseum Gelsenkirchen, the Art Award of the Kunststiftung NRW – Nam June Paik Award 2026 is awarded to the artist Michael Beutler (born 1976, lives and works in Berlin and Aachen). The internationally renowned award is endowed with 25,000 euros.
Michael Beutler is being honoured for his large-scale installation »Tapetenwechsel« (Change of Scenery). It transforms the former industrialist villa of the Kunstmuseum Gelsenkirchen into an artistic and artisanal production site – a multi-storey workshop in which waste paper is processed into sculptural objects. The manufacturing process itself becomes a central component of the exhibition. Machines, tools and production processes remain visible, making the transformation of the material immediately tangible.
A support award is also bestowed as part of the art award. It is conferred on 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 explores forms of community, neighbourhood and public coexistence. Readings, artistic interventions and performative formats, both indoors and outdoors, reflect the museum’s self-image as a place of reflection and exchange.