Graduate Exhibition: 16. Juli – 10. August 2025
Städel Museum, Schaumainkai 63, 60596 Frankfurt am Main
Opening hours: Tuesday–Sunday, 10 am–6 pm; Thursday, 10 am–9 pm
Opening: Tuesday, July 15, 2025, 7–10 pm
Entrance via Holbeinstraße, opposite building no. 8.
With a performance program by the students.
Under the title Overture, 30 graduates present their final exhibition at the Städel Museum. After up to five years of studies in Fine Arts, the exhibition marks not (only) the end of their study time, but presents also a prelude to what is yet to come. Overture points towards the horizon of artistic practice, and the process of developing and rediscovering one’s own approach to art and its relevance, again and again.
The students’ works offer insights into current artistic discourses, and yet, they grapple with timeless themes, which they bring into their own present and world: the politics and aesthetics of everyday life; the relentless circulation of images; the fluidity of identity; affects such as desire, vulnerability and longing; the traces of history and time; the limits of language and communication; the artificiality of our relationship with nature and the conditions of production – also in relation to one’s own position. The students’ media and practices are as rich as their themes: film, video and sound meet installation and sculpture, painting and collage, as well as conceptual and performative interventions.
The artists are Mariia Andreeva, Charlotte Berg, Linus Berg, Sam Cottington, Arnaud Ferron, Samuel Georgy, Tomás Loureiro Gonçalo, Anima Goyal, Giulia Guidi, Aerin Hong, Gašper Kunšič, Gregor Lau, raúl itamar lima, Salome Lübke, Fuki Matsumoto, Rosa Nitzsche, Vincenzo Ottino, Deshaun Price, Emmilou Roessling, Killa Schuetze, Juri Simoncini & Elisa Diaferia, Elsa Stanyer, Nicholas Stewens, Mahmoud Tarek, Siyu Tian, Vera Varlamova, Xtina Vargas, Punch Viratmalee and Ming Yuan.
From the classes of Monika Baer, Gerard Byrne, Judith Hopf, Hassan Khan, Tobias Rehberger, Willem de Rooij and Haegue Yang.
Curated by Johanna Laub.
Program & Guided Tours
Opening: Tuesday, July 15, 7–10 pm
Entrance opposite of Holbeinstraße 8, 60596 Frankfurt a.M.
7 pm Opening Speeches & Prize Ceremony
8:30 pm Sam Cottington, Monicka .Play
9:15 pm Emmilou Roessling, Schemes of an Hour
from 11 pm Graduate Party, Daimlerstraße 32, 60314 Frankfurt am Main
Finissage: Sunday, August 10, 2–5 pm
Schaumainkai 63, 60596 Frankfurt a.M.
2:15 pm Punch Viratmalee, Alte Meister—Heute
3 pm Guided Tour in German
4 pm Anima Goyal, Compartmentalization of an ill body
4:30 pm Vera Varlamova, Painting Fish
Public Tours: Sundays at 3 pm in German and Thursday at 7 pm in English. Meeting point is in the entrance area of the exhibition.
Audio Description of the Exhibition: Saturday, August 9, 3 pm
Audio description of Overture for blind and visually impaired visitors by Lilian Korner and Emmilou Roessling.
Please register via audiodeskription@staedelschule.de.
Further information about your visit and the program can be found here.
Supporters
Overture is made possible by major support from the Hessian Ministry of Science and Research, Art and Culture; Allen Overy Shearman Sterling LLP and the Ernst Max von Grunelius-Stiftung. We thank the Städelschule Portikus e.V., the Stiftung Städelschule für junge Künstler, the Sammlung Pohl gGmbH, Plastische Chirurgie Frankfurt | Hochtaunus and the Heinz und Gisela Friederichs Stiftung for the donation of graduate prizes and stipends.