Noemi Y. Molitor distinguished with the ADKV-ART COLOGNE Prize for Art Criticism 2025

The texts of this year's prize winner, Noemi Y. Molitor, unite precise formal analysis, cultural-scientific depth of focus and a pronounced sense for political contexts. The five-member jury spoke unanimously in favour of Noemi Y. Molitor as the prize winner of the ADKV-ART COLOGNE Prize for Art Criticism 2025, convinced by her thematic diversity, her multi-perspectival reflection on different art sectors and contexts as well as her varied form of expression.

Noemi Y. Molitor is seen as an independent and defining voice in German-language art criticism. Her texts unite precise formal analysis, cultural-scientific depth of focus and a pronounced sense for political contexts. This combination is made possible by a rare form of multiple qualification: Molitor received her doctorate from the Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies of Emory University (USA) and works, parallel with her activity as an author, as a visual artist in the fields of painting, installation and comics. As a result, she has insight into the levels of production, reception and discourse and stringently merges these different perspectives. With clear language and a variety of approaches, from feminist theory to postcolonial and queer perspectives, she makes complex themes accessible to a broad public and positions art critically in the societal context.

Members of the jury in 2025 were: Gürsoy Doğtaş (München), Annekathrin Kohout (Leipzig), Eva Kraus (Bonn), Vanessa Joan Müller (Wien) and last year's prize winner Martin Conrads (Berlin).

The prize has been awarded since 1999 by the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Deutscher Kunstvereine (ADKV) and in cooperation with ART COLOGNE since 2006. The award, endowed with 5,000 Euro, honours the engagement of freelance art critics who deal with contemporary art and its social context in the trade and daily press or in other media. In the interest of artists and art associations, the ADKV-ART COLOGNE Prize for Art Criticism contributes to strengthening high-quality cultural journalism.

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