Melike Kara
born 1985 in Bensberg, Germany.

Melike Kara’s practice encompasses a wide range of media, including painting, sculpture, and photography. She is known for addressing issues of displacement, marginalization, and exclusion, focusing on making unheard voices heard and empowered. Kara draws inspiration from Kurdish tapestries and uses them as a starting point for her gestural abstract paintings that reinterpret her own cultural heritage. Her process of adaptation shifts the narrative away from dominant stories of oppression and instead creates spaces to celebrate the beauty of everyday cultural life and its history, including traditions, festivals, and rituals of the Kurdish diaspora.

Her work has been exhibited internationally, including at MO.CO. Montpellier; SCHIRN Kunsthalle Frankfurt; Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen; Kunsthalle Zürich; Kunstverein Düsseldorf; Museum De Fundatie, Zwolle; Philara Foundation, Düsseldorf; Frac des pays de la Loire, Nantes; Mead Gallery | Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry; Neue Galerie Gladbeck; Ludwig Forum Aachen; Kölnischer Kunstverein; Wiels Contemporary Art Centre, Brussels; Kunstverein Göttingen; Kunstinstituut Melly, Rotterdam; Yuz Museum, Shanghai and Dortmunder Kunstverein. She participated in the 58th Carnegie International in Pittsburgh, curated by Sohrab Mohebbi.

Kresiah Mukwazhi
born 1992 in Harare, Zimbabwe.

Kresiah Mukwazhi’s work advocates for the visibility and rights of women who are discriminated against in patriarchal societies. Through visual activism, she explores the power dynamics within the female body through installations, performances, videos, and vibrant textile collages. In her latest series, she explores the underlying structures of systemic violence and deconstructs narratives that marginalize women in Zimbabwean society. By challenging cultural norms and taboos, Mukwazhi highlights the importance of addressing latent forms of patriarchy and systemic violence. Her work expresses a commitment to solidarity, empowerment, and care for marginalized communities and provides a platform for resistance and self-empowerment.

Her works have been exhibited internationally at venues such as Museum Ludwig, Cologne; Nottingham Contemporary; the Secession, Vienna; the Philara Foundation, Düsseldorf; the Zimbabwean Pavilion at the 59th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia; the Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg; the Norval Foundation, Cape Town; the South African National Gallery, Cape Town; Iziko Museums, Cape Town; the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (MOCAA), Cape Town; the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision; SAVVY Contemporary, Berlin; Njelele Art Station, Harare, Zimbabwe; and The National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Bulawayo.

Albert Leo Peil
born 1946 in Blankenfelde, Germany, d. 2019 in Lauf an der Pegnitz, Germany.

Albert Leo Peil (1946–2019) was a German artist known for his meticulous ink drawings and works on copper in which he explored themes of identity, queerness, and gender. In his multifaceted works, he created a world of tectonic landscapes populated by idealized figures that combine elements of mythology, celestial beings and cultural icons. Incorporating sci-fi and metaphysical imagery, his compositions are sometimes ambivalent and androgynous. They combine both masculine and feminine traits, imagining a future with queer life and virility.

His works have been exhibited at the CCA Berlin; the Kunst Galerie Fürth, Fürth; the Kölnischer Kunstverein and the Mujin-to Production, Tokyo.