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Since 2012, the Emerging Artists exhibitions at our German Affordable Art Fairs have given a curated platform to new, unrepresented talent. Most of the artists involved have been recent graduates from the local universities of Fine Art.

Looking back at the last 12 years, the visibility generated by the Emerging Artists exhibitions has been integral in supporting and pushing artist’s careers within the difficult starting conditions of the art world.

The exhibition creates a space of tranquility within the busy atmosphere at the fair, giving visitors the opportunity to reflect and relate to the artworks themselves. The exhibition differs from the typical gallery booth and you’re able to experience art in the more conceptual and spacial way you might expect in a traditional exhibition space.

Emerging Artists Berlin 2026

The Emerging Artists Berlin 2026 exhibition will be curated by Fair Manager Hannah Weber-Heidenfels, showing the conceptual works of the three artists Bella Bram, Özcan Ertek and Solveig Schmid, who are all Berlin-based and have graduated within the last few years.

Under the topic ‘Resonante Zustände – Körper, Material und Wahrnehmung im Übergang’, the exhibition brings together three artistic positions, which explore transitions between body, space, material, and perception. The artworks operate in states of in-between: between object and environment, sound and silence, intuition and construction.

Bella Bram’s sculptural assemblages unfold fragile architectures that overlay organic and functional references, which create situations in which physicality is not represented but rather spatially experienced. Özcan Ertek’s sound and movement-based installations activate space as a sensitive resonating chamber in which technological systems, human interaction, and perception mutually influence each other, while Solveig Schmid’s painterly, works open up poetic fields in which time, material, and memory sediment without narrative closure.

Together, the works defy easy interpretation and demand an embodied, situational reception, which is not understood as passive a observation, but as a process that takes shape in the interplay of space, material, and audience. ‘Resonante Zustände’ understands the exhibition space as a structure of tensions, overlaps, and sensitive transitions — a place where material, sonic, and atmospheric levels mutually influence and set each other in motion.

Bella Bram

In her artistic practice, Bella Bram explores animal structures, behaviors, and forms of perception, particularly those from the insect world. Since the beginning of 2023, she has been working on the series “swarming,” in which she links two levels of meaning of the term: firstly, swarming as a collective, dynamic formation of similar living beings — such as insects — and secondly, swarming in the sense of a deep, almost irrational enthusiasm. This dual interpretation forms the conceptual core of her work.

The objects in this series are formally inspired by architectural principles of the 1970s and simultaneously by insect architecture. She combines geometric, often brutalist-looking structures with organic forms: antenna-like extensions, feeler-like details, and fragile, stilt-like limbs are reminiscent of animal forms and at the same time resemble pieces of furniture or architectural fragments. She is interested in how insects shape their environment functionally and aesthetically with minimal means — and how this approach can be used as a model for viewing the human world.

In the series, the architectural-constructive thinking of humans encounters that of animals
in a poetic way. The sculptures appear as fragments of a possible future in which human design is oriented towards the construction methods of animals not only formally, but also conceptually: minimal, efficient, sensitive – and open to ambiguity.

In Bella Bram’s work, she is interested precisely in this transition: How can animal building principles be transferred to design — not as purely biomorphic quotations, but as approaches to thinking? Insects build collectively, without a plan, yet swarm with high intelligence at the system level. This is rarely the case in the design process. Nevertheless, parallels emerge: for example, in modular organization, the use of existing materials, or in the fusion of form and function.

Özcan Ertek

Özcan Ertek is a sonic and media artist whose work explores the intersections of sound, sculpture, and motion. His practice focuses on the relationships between technology, the body, and space, often using interactive sound sculptures, kinetic objects, and site-specific installations to investigate how sound can act as a tool for disruption, reflection, and agency.

His interdisciplinary work examines how sound shapes perception, agency, and spatial experience, critically engaging with human-machine interaction, sensory thresholds, and material transformation. By engaging with sounding artifacts and their role in shaping perception and interaction, his work explores how movement, materiality, and sound intersect within site-specific and participatory environments, opening new possibilities for engagement and critical reflection.

Bell metal contains large amounts of copper and tin. For centuries, bells have been removed from bell towers during times of war and melted down for military purposes, particularly for cannons. The installation “Bells and Cannons” are sounds from a deep-time ecology hidden and encoded within the bells of Europe.

The sculptural timepiece consists of three large brass discs and offers an endless sound loop of a speculative weapon emerging from a bell/cannon transformation. It explores a cyclical historical phenomenon by linking the effects of man-made disasters and offering another way of thinking about the passage of time.

Dreaming of a world where interspecies conflict gives way to coexistence, the artist reimagines the bird-deterrent spur as a tool for connection and communication. Transformed into a mediating artifact, the defensive architecture structure broadcasts recorded pigeon sounds, picks them up again via contact microphones, and projects them back into the space, allowing visitors to experience the material as a vessel for sonic exchange. Visitors are also invited to activate new timbres from the spikes, thereby reconsidering the boundaries between hostility and coexistence.

Solveig Schmid

Solveig Schmid’s large-format paintings suggest the presence of supposed spaces and moods. The direct painting process creates a play with nuances, density, and permeability. Gestures of partially transparent ground, combined with pigmented glazes, allow the canvas, underpainting, and layers of paint to be effective simultaneously, intertwining surface and depth.

In Solveig’s work she attempts to generate a field of tension through performative processes, material resistance, and controlled chance, oscillating between hermetic color fields and narrative openness, and resisting the logics of quick readability and the common viewing habits of our image-saturated contemporary culture.

References to natural phenomena serve as conceptual models for immediacy, temporality, movement, and dissolution. Related to this are the hieroglyphic, rapid gestures that stand in isolation and explore the transience and absence of language. In the laminated paper works, background and gesture are directly linked. The boundaries of the area are partly broken up in a playful way, allowing associations with private or public spaces.

Whether you’re a seasoned collector or a beginner in the art world, join us from 16 – 19 April 2026 at Arena Berlin for the perfect opportunity to grow your art collection. To stay up to date with fair information, exclusive ticket offers, and local art news sign up to our newsletter.