Dr. Andrée Sfeir-Semler is awarded the ART COLOGNE Prize for Art Mediators 2025, honoring her pioneering role in bringing contemporary art from the Middle East into the international discourse.
Hatje Cantz will publish her major anthology “The Rise of Arab Art” - a 600-page landmark volume on contemporary Arab art. The book brings together essays by around 40 leading curators, museum directors, and artists, including Richard Armstrong (Guggenheim NYC), Hans Ulrich Obrist (Serpentine London), Zeina Arida (Mathaf Doha), Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, and Wael Shawky.
Sfeir-Semler has run her gallery in Hamburg for 40 years and, in 2005, opened the first international contemporary art gallery in Beirut – a bold move in politically unstable times. She has been instrumental in championing artists such as Etel Adnan, Yto Barrada, Wael Shawky, and Akram Zaatari, establishing them on the global stage. Her gallery remains a space for intellectual exchange and cultural dialogue despite ongoing crises and conflicts in the region.
Born in Beirut, she studied in Lebanon, Paris, and Germany, and founded her first gallery in 1985 – shaped by conceptual art, political engagement, and intercultural exchange.
The award ceremony will take place on 7 November 2025 at 10:00 AM at the Historic Town Hall in Cologne, during the 58th edition of ART COLOGNE (6–9 November 2025). The laudatory speech will be delivered by Mirjam Varadinis, curator at Kunsthaus Zürich.