SIMACEK
ART AWARD
WINNERS 2025
Kweku Okokroko
Chorong Moon
Valentino Skarwan
Arina Grinevich
JURY
Veronika Dirnhofer, Anna Jermolaewa, Jakob Lena Knebl, Florian Pumhösl, Ursula Simacek, Raimund Deininger
AWARD-CEREMONY
Thursday, May 22, 2025 - Factory, Künstlerhaus Vienna
CHORONG
MOON
In the sculptures of Chorong Moon (*1991, Seoul, South Korea), the focus lies on physical movement, bodily perception, and the interplay between the two as experienced in everyday life. Various forces and motions - gravity, rotation, waves, resonance - act all around us, invisible yet perceptible.
Chorong observes and documents these trajectories, capturing moments of transformation and translating them into form. Her works emerge from an aesthetic approach that engages both with physical phenomena and sensory experience.
nominated by Florian Pumhösl
Image courtesy © Chorong Moon
KWEKU
OKOKROKO
Kweku Okokroko (*1999, Accra, Ghana) works at the intersection of literature and visual art. His works emerge from a subtle interplay between text and image: paragraphs, lines, and stanzas meet lines, forms, and figures, resulting in a layered and personal perspective on his surroundings.
At the core of his practice are themes such as nature, tradition, identity, virtue, morality, and religion. A central concern of his work is the preservation of Ghanaian culture and the resistance against its ongoing corruption and decline. The norms, traditions, and especially the rich oral literature of his country form the foundation of his artistic practice.
nominated by Veronika Dirnhofer
ARINA
GRINEVICH
In her work, Grinevich (*2002, Belarus) explores themes such as migration, belonging, memory, and identity. Her long-term project Kalykhanka is based on the painterly processing of her dreams— a poetic archive of the unconscious in which intimate inner worlds are translated into atmospheric visual spaces.
She combines personal narratives with broader social reflection. Her works exist between tenderness and resistance, between vulnerability and self-assertion.
nominated by Anna Jermolaewa
Image courtesy © Arina Grinevich
VALENTINO
SKARWAN
Valentino Skarwan (*1998, Vienna, Austria) works at the intersection of performance, sculpture, installation, video, and photography. Having grown up between Guatemala and Vienna, their practice moves across different cultural and linguistic contexts.
This is reflected in their artistic approach, where identity, belonging, and corporeality are understood as open and process-based categories.
nominated by Jakob Lena Knebl
Image courtesy © Valentino Skarwan
LIMITED EDITIONS
All award winners develop an exclusive graphic edition for the SIMACEK GROUP as part of the award. The works are produced in a format of 50 × 65 cm, in an edition of 20 + 5 artist’s proofs, and are realised as silkscreen or digital prints.
WINNER EDITIONS
WINNER EDITIONS
Nominated Artists
2025
by Jakob Lena Knebl
Class for Transmedia Art, University of Applied Arts Vienna
Cristian Anutoiu
Leonie Holtkamp
Valentino Skarwan
Laura Josic
Lin Wolf
Dalmonia Rognean
by Veronika Dirnhofer
Institute of Fine Arts, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
Gregor Beiwl
Lisa Obereder
Kweku Okokroko
Shuvo Rafiqul
Paria Sharestani
Lotti Brockmann
by Anna Jermolaewa
Class for Experimental Art, University of Art and Design Linz
Veronika Harb
Katharina Maria Wimmer
Olga Shcheblykina
Arina Grinevich
Mathias Schlägel
Duy Hung Ngo
by Florian Pumhösl
Sculpture Class, Academy of Fine Arts Munich
Ömer Faruk Kaplan
Chorong Moon
Florian Nöthe
Ayaka Terajima
Ludwig Stalla
Josefine Simonsen
Chronic
2025
2023
2022
Courtesy: © Chorong Moon, precessed, 2025
Courtesy: © Nanna Kaiser, Skinned sky utopian try, 2023
Courtesy: © Hiu Tung Ching, Untitled, 2021
