KARIN KNEFFEL receives catholic art and culture award

Painter and graphic artist Karin Kneffel will be awarded this year's Art and Culture Prize of German Catholics, the Catholic Church's highest honor in the field of culture. The prize, worth €25,000, will be presented to her on October 29, 2025, at the Kolumba Museum in Cologne.

In its statement, the jury praised the “technical perfection” of the artist, who was born in Marl in 1957. Her photorealistic paintings are particularly fascinating due to their “differently refracted viewer perspectives,” in which “symbolism and realism, iconography and surface, art and life meet in a way that is as surprising as it is appealing.” According to the jury, Kneffel gives her numerous animal portraits “a disturbing look” that seems to ask people “how things are going in the world as our common home.”

With regard to her latest series of paintings, “Face of a Woman, Head of a Child,” the jury praised Kneffel for “drawing on Christian iconography of Mary with the baby Jesus while simultaneously breaking away from it.” Her depiction shows a “unique dignity,” as Mary and Jesus appear “incognito, yet very present and approachable.” The jury emphasized that Kneffel “guarantees that visual art remains sensual” and highlighted that her art is “physical and real” in the age of AI and social media.

The prize has been awarded since 1990 by the German Bishops' Conference and the Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK) to outstanding artists in order to promote the encounter between the Church and modern culture. Karin Kneffel follows in the footsteps of previous winners such as dancer and choreographer Lia Rodrigues (2021) and architect Peter Zumthor (2011).