Contemporary Artist Simone Decker Named Winner of Lëtzebuerger Konschtpräis 2026

On Thursday 22 January 2026, Luxembourg’s Ministry of Culture announced that artist Simone Decker has been named the winner of the Lëtzebuerger Konschtpräis (Luxembourg art prize) 2026.

Luxembourg’s Minister of Culture, Eric Thill, congratulated the artist on her selection by the jury: “For her rich and varied body of work, as well as for her remarkable professional career, I extend my congratulations and thanks to the prizewinner Simone Decker. Alongside her own artistic career, Simone Decker has consistently committed herself to the professional development of other creators, notably as a lecturer at the Academy of Fine Arts in Nuremberg and, since April 2025, as Head of the Visual Arts Department at Kultur|lx.”

The jury was composed of Jamie Armstrong, art historian, museologist and Head of the Lëtzebuerger Konschtarchiv at the National Museum of Archaeology, History and Art (MNAHA); Lis Hausemer, art historian, exhibition curator andч Deputy Curator of the fine arts collections at the MNAHA; Christian Mosar, art historian, art critic, exhibition curator and Director of the Konschthal; Claude Moyen, art historian, former educational adviser at Mudam Luxembourg and Deputy Director of the Lycée classique de Diekirch; and Danièle Wagener, art historian, exhibition curator, former Director of the two museums of the City of Luxembourg and President of the Œuvre nationale de secours Grande-Duchesse Charlotte.

The jury selected Simone Decker for the third edition of the prize, describing her as a major figure of the Luxembourg and international contemporary art scene. Active since the 1990s, her work is rooted in the visual arts, particularly installation and photography, and is characterised by strong conceptual foundations, visual poetry and interventions in public space. The jury also highlighted her academic career, including her teaching activities at the Academy of Fine Arts in Nuremberg between 2008 and 2015, where she led postgraduate programmes focusing on art and public space.

The jury further noted that Simone Decker is considered one of the first contemporary Luxembourg artists to have engaged extensively with public space as part of an international professional career, helping to establish it as a distinct artistic field. Her installations, sculptures and photographs explore architecture, urban environments and institutional contexts, inviting viewers to rethink their relationship with space through plays on scale, materials and perception. Her work has been exhibited internationally, notably at the Venice Biennale in 1999 with the photographic project Chewing and Folding in Venice.

Endowed with €10,000, the biennial Lëtzebuerger Konschtpräis recognises an artist for their complete body of work, career and lasting commitment to the Luxembourg art scene. The prize was created in 2022 as part of the implementation of the Kulturentwécklungsplang 2018-2028 (Cultural Development Plan).

The award ceremony will take place in November 2026 at the MNAHA in Luxembourg City.