Kerstin Brätsch, winner of the 2027 Zurich Art Prize. Photo: Andrea Rossetti, courtesy of HFBK Hamburg.
Kerstin Brätsch Zurich Art Prize: discover why she won the 2027 award, her CHF 130,000 prize, and her upcoming exhibition at Museum Haus Konstruktiv.
BY ARTCENTRON ART NEWS DESK
Kerstin Brätsch has won the 2027 Zurich Art Prize, becoming the 20th artist to receive the prestigious award. Presented by Museum Haus Konstruktiv and Zurich Insurance Company Ltd., the prize comes with CHF 130,000.
The award includes CHF 30,000 in prize money and CHF 100,000 toward the production of a solo exhibition. Brätsch will present the resulting exhibition at Museum Haus Konstruktiv in Zurich from June 3 to September 5, 2027. The presentation will be her first solo exhibition in Switzerland.
Known for her expansive approach to painting, Brätsch works across sculpture, installation, performance, architecture, and craft. Her selection reflects the jury’s interest in artists who connect contemporary practice with the legacy of constructive-concrete and conceptual art.
Why Kerstin Brätsch Won the Zurich Art Prize
The Zurich Art Prize was established in 2007 by Museum Haus Konstruktiv and Zurich Insurance Company Ltd. It recognizes artists whose practices engage with the history and ideas of constructive-concrete and conceptual art while pursuing new directions.
Brätsch stood out for the way she connects painting, craft, and conceptual art. She does not treat painting as a closed medium. Instead, she uses it as an open field that can move into other forms and materials. Her work can include painting, glass, marbleized surfaces, mosaics, sculpture, textiles, and furniture. She also works with artisans and craftspeople to realize technically demanding projects.
This approach challenges the idea of the artist as a solitary maker. It also places Brätsch’s work within a longer history of exchanges between art and craft.
The jury also noted Brätsch’s interest in artists such as Hilma af Klint and Emma Kunz. Both artists explored abstraction and spiritual or geometric forms. Their work has particular relevance to Museum Haus Konstruktiv and its interest in the legacy of early abstract-geometric art. The museum describes itself as an institution focused on constructive-concrete and conceptual art. Its program connects that history with international contemporary practice. Zuerich
Who Is Kerstin Brätsch?
Kerstin Brätsch was born in Hamburg in 1979. She studied at the Berlin University of the Arts and later completed a Master of Fine Arts at Columbia University in New York.
Since 2024, she has held a professorship in painting and drawing at the Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg. She shares the teaching position with artist Debo Eilers. Collaboration has long been central to Brätsch’s practice. She has worked with Adele Röder as part of the collective DAS INSTITUT since 2007. She has also worked with Eilers as the artist duo KAYA since 2010.
Her career includes exhibitions at major museums and institutions. These include Kunstmuseum Bonn, Munchmuseet in Oslo, Ludwig Forum Aachen, Fondazione Memmo in Rome, and Museum Brandhorst in Munich. She has also participated in major international exhibitions. Her exhibition history includes the Venice Biennale and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Kerstin Brätsch’s Experimental Approach to Painting
Painting remains central to Brätsch’s practice. Yet she constantly tests what painting can become. She works with historical techniques such as stained glass, marbling, stucco, and mosaic. These methods bring physical processes into the center of her work.
Brätsch often collaborates with specialists who possess knowledge of traditional craft techniques. She learns from these practitioners while adapting their methods for contemporary art. The process gives her work a strong material presence. It also raises questions about authorship, collaboration, and the relationship between art and craft.
This crossing of disciplines has become an important feature of contemporary art. Artists working with textiles, for example, have increasingly challenged the traditional separation between fine art and craft. ARTCENTRON explored this intersection in its coverage of Diedrick Brackens and the Wein Artist Prize.
Brätsch’s approach also connects with the wider evolution of contemporary painting. Artists increasingly treat the medium as something that can absorb installation, material experimentation, and new forms of presentation.
From Painting to Immersive Installations
Brätsch’s recent projects show how far her understanding of painting can extend. At the Aspen Art Museum, her site-specific project Fossil Psychic Stone Mimicry combines mosaic benches with plants growing through and around them. The work brings crafted surfaces and living elements together.
Her MIMIKRY installation at the Fridericianum in Kassel takes a different approach. Brätsch transformed the museum café with colorful marbled wallpaper, curtains, translucent partitions, and sculptural tables. The project turns a functional interior into an immersive environment. Walls, furniture, and decorative surfaces become part of the composition.
At Gropius Bau in Berlin, Brätsch developed BAUBAU as an immersive play space for children. The project incorporates wall coverings, building materials, crafts, and costumes. These works show how Brätsch moves beyond the conventional canvas. She creates environments that people can enter, use, and experience.
Her recent practice also places greater emphasis on collective participation. The spaces she creates can become places for gathering rather than objects that viewers simply observe. The jury highlighted this expanded approach to art and authorship in its assessment of her work. Espazium
Kerstin Brätsch’s Major Awards and Exhibitions
The Zurich Art Prize adds another important distinction to Brätsch’s career. She received the Marta Prize of the Wemhöner Foundation in 2025. In 2020, she received the Helen Frankenthaler Award for Painting from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts in New York. She also received the Peill Prize from the Günther-Peill Foundation that year.
In 2017, she received the Edvard Munch Art Award from the Munchmuseet in Oslo. Her institutional exhibitions have also helped establish her position in contemporary painting. Recent presentations include Kunstmuseum Bonn in 2026 and Munchmuseet in Oslo in 2025.
Her career reflects a sustained interest in experimentation. The Kerstin Brätsch Zurich Art Prize recognition therefore builds on a substantial record rather than marking a sudden breakthrough.
What to Expect From Kerstin Brätsch’s Zurich Exhibition
Brätsch’s Zurich Art Prize exhibition will open at Museum Haus Konstruktiv on June 3, 2027. It will remain on view through September 5, 2027. The CHF 100,000 production allocation will support the creation of the exhibition. That makes the award particularly significant for an artist whose practice often depends on ambitious installations and collaborations.
The exhibition will also have a strong institutional context. Museum Haus Konstruktiv focuses on constructive-concrete and conceptual art. Its exhibitions examine connections between those traditions and contemporary practice. Brätsch’s interest in abstraction makes that context especially relevant. Her references to Hilma af Klint and Emma Kunz create a direct connection to the history of and non-figurative art. abstract-geometric art.
The museum’s upcoming program reinforces this dialogue. Its 2026 exhibition The Body Within Abstraction examines the relationship between the body and non-figurative art. Hauskonstruktiv
The forthcoming Brätsch exhibition will therefore place an experimental contemporary practice within a museum deeply engaged with abstraction and its continuing legacy.
When Is the Kerstin Brätsch Zurich Art Prize Exhibition?
The Kerstin Brätsch Zurich Art Prize exhibition will take place at Museum Haus Konstruktiv in Zurich from June 3 through September 5, 2027. It will be Brätsch’s first solo exhibition in Switzerland. Visitors can follow Museum Haus Konstruktiv’s official exhibition information for updates about the presentation, new works, and related programming.
The museum moved to the Löwenbräukunst site in Zurich in 2025. Its new location provides a significant architectural setting for artists working across installation, sculpture, and painting.
Painting, Abstraction, and the Museum Haus Konstruktiv Context
Brätsch’s relationship with abstraction is not straightforward. She does not simply reproduce the visual language of geometric abstraction. Instead, she explores how abstract ideas can evolve through material, craft, and collaboration.
That makes the historical context of Museum Haus Konstruktiv important. The museum traces connections between constructive-concrete art and contemporary artistic practices. Brätsch’s work enters that conversation through color, surface, geometry, and material experimentation.
The history of geometric abstraction provides another useful point of reference. ARTCENTRON’s recent coverage of Piet Mondrian’s Composition III examines how Mondrian used line, color, and proportion to create a new visual language.
Brätsch approaches those questions differently. Her work is more tactile and materially diverse. Yet both practices ask how much can happen when artists rethink the basic elements of painting. This connection helps explain why Brätsch is such a compelling choice for Museum Haus Konstruktiv.
Why the 2027 Zurich Art Prize Matters
The Zurich Art Prize gives Brätsch both recognition and resources. Its CHF 30,000 prize money acknowledges her contribution to contemporary art. The additional CHF 100,000 production budget gives her the means to develop a substantial new exhibition.
That structure suits an artist who frequently works across disciplines. Brätsch does not simply produce paintings for a gallery wall. She creates environments, objects, and situations that can transform the spaces around them.
Her practice also challenges the boundaries between fine art and craft. Historical techniques become tools for contemporary experimentation. Collaboration becomes part of the creative process.
The award’s connection to Museum Haus Konstruktiv adds another dimension. Brätsch will develop her work in dialogue with an institution dedicated to constructive-concrete and conceptual art.
Her interest in Hilma af Klint and Emma Kunz strengthens that connection. Both artists expanded the possibilities of abstraction. Brätsch continues that process through a very different material and collaborative language. Espazium
Kerstin Brätsch and the Future of Painting
The 2027 Zurich Art Prize confirms Brätsch’s position among artists reshaping contemporary painting. Her work refuses to keep painting within the boundaries of the canvas. It moves into sculpture, architecture, craft, and installation. It also brings artists, artisans, and audiences into the creative process.
That makes the upcoming Zurich exhibition worth watching. From June 3 to September 5, 2027, Museum Haus Konstruktiv will give Brätsch a new setting in which to test these ideas. The result may reveal how far painting can expand when color, surface, and material become part of a larger environment.
For now, the Kerstin Brätsch Zurich Art Prize marks a significant moment in the artist’s career. It recognizes an established practice while giving Brätsch the opportunity to take that practice in a new direction.