Andrée Sfeir-Semler – ART COLOGNE prize winner 2025

Born in 1953 in Beirut, Sfeir-Semler studied fine arts at the American University and at the National TV and Film Center in Beirut. In 1975, she came to Munich with a DAAD scholarship, continued her studies at the University of Bielefeld and in greater depth at the Sorbonne in Paris.

She founded her first gallery in Kiel in 1985, later moving to Hamburg. Her work focussed at an early date on Conceptual Art, Minimal Art and political positions. A decisive turn took place with the cooperation with Walid Raad, which motivated her to promote contemporary art from the Arab world.

In 2005, she opened the first gallery of the region with an international programme in Beirut – a bold step in politically unstable times. Since then, she has represented and helped internationally establish artists like Etel Adnan, Yto Barrada, Wael Shawky or Akram Zaatari. Despite conflicts, crises and wars, her gallery has remained a place for exchange and intellectual freedom.

In September 2025, the anthology “The Rise of Arab Art", edited by her, will appear with Hatje Cantz – a standard work on contemporary Arab art with contributions from international curators and artists. She also administers the estate of the artist MARWAN and is realising several projects of passion in 2025, including an art in architecture project in Berlin and a Giacometti/MARWAN exhibition in Paris.

From 6 to 9 November 2025, ART COLOGNE invites those interested in art from around the world to Cologne to discover, experience and buy for the 58th time.

In the course of this event, Andrée Sfeir-Semler will be officially honoured with the ART COLOGNE Prize for art communication, which is endowed with 10,000 Euro, on Friday, 7 November 2025 at 10:00 a.m. in the Historic City Hall of Cologne. The laudatory speech will be held by Mirjam Varadinis, Curator at Kunsthaus Zurich.

You can find more detailed information on this year's prize winner in our press information.