15th Biennale of Saxon Prints
Exhibition opening and award ceremony on Tuesday, September 3rd at 7:30 p.mIntroduction: Mathias Lindner, jury memberThe 100 Saxon Graphics 2024 continue the chain of socially focused themes from the last biennials: F E U E R, F E U E R! It's burning brightly and gradually everyone notices how hot it is under their soles. We can no longer escape the world's conflicts, we must develop attitudes and seriously adapt our actions. For us peace-loving people, challenges lurk around every corner. The good future can no longer be bought with money alone. Indifference is not yet punished, planes still fly and cars drive at will. There are still living trees in our inner cities. But anyone who can see can sense the impositions to come. We're playing with fire. Parallel to the fatal treatment of nature, social disputes in the present are increasingly rapidly leading to increasingly harsh confrontations. Statements replace dialogues. Finding common ground is more difficult. Culture as a space for discourse and therefore solutions is becoming more important. Many of the artists whose works were selected this year are hot topics. The awarding of the donated art prizes was based on pointed and graphically successful discussions.Statistically speaking, a renaissance of classical techniques can be observed. Linocut became the most used printing technique for the first time this year. Its ease of use, even without a printing workshop, also reflects the precarious situation of many artists. A long-standing tendency towards large formats is also reflected in this biennale. Artistically, the use of combinatorial technology opens up new possibilities that are being extensively researched. In combinatorics, working methods that were previously considered separate or alien to printmaking appear to be a key to innovation in the area of printmaking.All artists whose work and work focus is in Saxony were eligible to participate. A maximum of four prints designed individually or as a cycle that were created since 2022 could be submitted. 148 artists submitted 355 works to the 15th Biennale competition. Works by 66 artists were selected. For the 100 selected graphics, the jury considered the convincing graphic form and the conciseness of the artistic language to be the highest criteria. It included Benjamin Rux, curator of the paintings and graphics collection at the Lindenau Museum Altenburg, Jeannette Brabenetz, art historian, the artist Annette Schröter (emer. professor at the HGB Leipzig), Björn Egging from the Kupferstichkabinett Dresden and Mathias Lindner, director of the Neue Sächsische Galerie , on.
Prize winner I Prize donorKai Spade · Löser-Föhse sponsorship awardBettina Haller · Art Prize from the law firm INGENSIEP Fachanwälte Rechtsanwälte PartGmbBStephanie Marx · Art Prize Lawyer Markus M. Merbecks - ww.sanierungskultur.deStefan Knechtel · FASA AG Art PrizeJuana Anzellini · Schönherr WEBA GmbH Art Prize
At the end of the exhibition period in the Neue Sächsische Galerie, an audience prize donated by Neue Chemnitzer Kunsthütte e.V. will also be awarded.
Catalog with images of all exhibited works.further exhibition stations:Museum of Printing Leipzig (2025)Laikku Tampere Cultural Center (FIN, summer 2025)Malzhaus Plauen (2026)
We would like to thank our prize donors: Steffani Löser-Föhse I law firm INGENSIEP Fachanwälte Rechtsanwälte PartGmbB I lawyer Markus M. Merbecks I FASA AG I Schönherr WEBA GmbH. Funded by the Cultural Foundation of the Free State of Saxony, the Office for Urban Cultural Management Chemnitz and the Neue Chemnitzer Kunsthütte e. v. This measure is co-financed by tax revenues based on the budget approved by the members of the Saxon state parliament.
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On the initiative of the art historian Werner Ballarin, committed citizens founded what was probably the first art association in what was then the GDR on January 24, 1990. Both in its naming and in its basic intentions, the new association saw itself in the tradition of the first Chemnitz art association - the Chemnitz Art Association, which was founded in 1860 and became an important cultural institution in the up-and-coming industrial city around the turn of the century. Under the aegis of the exhibition director Friedrich Schreiber-Weigand, the focus was primarily on modern art developments. The first exhibitions with works by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff introduced the new direction of Expressionism. The Kunsthütte's extensive purchasing activities during these years also laid the foundation for the city of Chemnitz's later art collections.
In 1996, the Neue Chemnitzer Kunsthütte e.V. took over the sponsorship of the municipal art collection Neue Sächsische Galerie, which has been run in close partnership with the association since the fall of the Berlin Wall, but as an independent museum for the city of Chemnitz. Since then, the association has coordinated all museum and organizational matters of this unique institution in Saxony in a fiduciary capacity and ensures the constant growth and updating of the collection through purchases and the acquisition of donations.
The Neue Sächsische Galerie (NSG) is a museum for contemporary art and activity space of the Neue Chemnitzer Kunsthütte art association. It owes its existence to the committed advocacy of Chemnitz citizens during the reunification period. The local Stasi headquarters for state citizen surveillance became a place for free thought and creation - the Neue Sächsische Galerie. In the 1970s and 1980s the city produced a vibrant art scene. At that time, the potential for provocation, but also the value of intellectual self-determination, was experienced anew by artists and viewers alike. The gallery still feels committed to this idea today. Its core activities relate to art events in the wider area of Saxony, but also to the exchange with international contemporary art positions. She particularly focuses on artistic achievements that are aesthetically and intellectually striking and thus generate friction and conflict. In doing so, she takes up developments in classic art genres such as new media.
With the founding of the NSG, a collection of art from Saxony after 1945 was created. The starting point was the inventory of the Karl-Marx-Stadt District Art Center. On this basis, we strive to close important gaps through donations and targeted purchases and to continue documenting the development of art in the Saxon cultural area after 1990. Almost 12,000 works have been collected to date. They represent essential artistic development lines in Saxony with extraordinary works. In addition to works of fine art, the collection includes extensive holdings of applied art and industrial design from the GDR period as well as poster art. Due to a lack of purchasing funds, the works found their way into the collection almost exclusively through donations, transfers and sponsorship. The gallery would like to thank the artists for their trust and solidarity with the idea of this unique collection. NCK e.V. was able to make some purchases thanks to the collection among members. Since the NSG moved to the TIETZ in 2004, works from the collection have been presented in irregular sequence in exhibition modules such as “drawn”, “painted”, “designed for everyday life”, “photographed”, contemporary historical backgrounds and artistic production conditions are described, materials , tools and working methods of the artists are presented. The art collection of the Neue Sächsische Galerie will soon be made permanently and completely digitally accessible online.
catalogues and other publications
of the current exhibition every Tuesday, 5 p.m.
Guided tour of the current exhibitions (admission: €4, reduced €2, no tour fee) Further tours by arrangement (costs: entry plus 30 euros tour fee) People up to 18 years of age, trainees, students at Chemnitz University of Technology and members of German art associations (AdKV) have free entry
ask for tour in english: +49 371 3676680
You can find our group offers here.
Every month we invite you to a Sunday art walk in the gallery. Children and adults encounter the current exhibitions in a playful way, get to know artists personally and can also become artistically active together. You can find the next dates in our calendar.
Drawing Printing Bookbinding
The skills of drawing, printing and bookbinding can be acquired in challenging workshops, primarily for adults, for example • Trying out wet and dry drawing techniques • Making your own tools such as bourdon tubes • Trying out unconventional printing techniques, e.g. Lego printing • Experimental embossing on a printing press • Producing block stitching and other adhesive-free bindings • Creating paper and designing with natural and recycled materials • Building and obtaining small graphic folders and boxes Registration: info@nsg-chemnitz.de or 0371 3676680 You can find the next dates in our calendar.
Studio for original graphics for all age groups (registration via the gallery) Experience, experience and learn artistic printmaking.
The DRUCKSTOCK is a living workshop in which artists work in a variety of ways to create new graphics. Letterpress, gravure and stone printing are on the agenda here. Anyone who would like to take a look behind the scenes of the professionals or experience this working atmosphere in a sensual and active way is cordially invited to the following offers: • Technical workshop tours that explain what, how and why something is done during printing • Demonstrations of the various printing techniques, where the art historical references and developments are explained • Art education workshops in which all printing processes can be creatively tested, depending on the time frame, desired technology and group size The costs for the offers in the printing workshop depend on the group size and the amount of materials used. Registration: info@nsg-chemnitz.de or 0371 3676680
Supporting association of the Neue Sächsische Galerie
On January 24, 1990, committed citizens founded the art association "Neue Chemnitzer Kunsthütte e.V." on the initiative of art historian Dr. Werner Ballarin - probably the first association of its kind in the former GDR. Both in its name and in its fundamental intentions, the new association saw itself in the tradition of the first Chemnitz art association - the "Chemnitzer Kunsthütte", which had already been founded in 1860 and advanced to become an important cultural institution in the up-and-coming industrial city around the turn of the century. Under the aegis of exhibition director Friedrich Schreiber-Weigand, the focus was primarily on modern art developments. The first exhibitions with works by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff introduced the public to the new direction of Expressionism.The extensive purchasing activities of the Kunsthütte in these years also laid the foundations for the later art collections of the city of Chemnitz.Like its predecessor, the Neue Chemnitzer Kunsthütte aims to actively contribute to the promotion of contemporary art in Saxony. Through exhibitions, art talks, lectures, symposia and other events, the association aims to provide a broad platform for the discussion of contemporary art.
In 1996, the association took over the sponsorship of the municipal art collection Neue Sächsische Galerie, which until then had been run in close partnership with the association, but as an independent museum of the city of Chemnitz. Since then, the association has coordinated all museum and organizational matters of this unique institution in Saxony on a fiduciary basis.
In 2021, the Kunstverein was awarded the Saxon Museum Prize for its "mediation approaches - both traditional and innovative - for contemporary art as well as the preservation and treatment of so-called 'Eastern Modernism'" in the Neue Sächsische Galerie.