Sculptor Maria Gerbaulet, who lives in Kiel, has been awarded the prestigious Gustav Weidanz Prize for Sculpture 2025 by Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design Halle. Gerbaulet's exceptional work distinguished her from a diverse pool of 97 applications submitted from across Germany.

The Gustav Weidanz Prize has been awarded by BURG since 1975, with this year marking the 23rd presentation of the honor. The award is considered one of Germany's most important emerging talent prizes for sculptors nationwide. The recognition comes with a monetary award of 2,500 euros and provides the winner with a cabinet exhibition scheduled to be displayed at the Moritzburg Art Museum in Halle (Saale) during fall/winter 2026, along with an accompanying publication.

Gerbaulet's sculptural work focuses particularly on basic materials such as clay, wax, wood dust, wool, and ash. She liberates these materials from their original functional contexts and subjects them to sensitive investigations. Her artistic interest lies in questioning the permanence and stability of our environment and ourselves, while revealing vulnerability and fragility as powerful structures.

The artist's material experiments fluctuate in form between bodily structures and technical systems. She surrounds her objects with fixtures that evoke medical interventions used for healing cracks and fractures. These metal fixations, screws, and brackets serve both as necessary supports for the form and as holders for fragile elements. The high sensitivity of her material investigations challenges our attention and empathy, standing in contrast to simplified and crude worldviews and realities.

Maria Gerbaulet was born in 1994 in Sassenberg, North Rhine-Westphalia, and began her career in architecture and interior design. After completing a degree in Spatial Strategies, she turned to fine arts and studied sculpture at Muthesius University of Fine Arts in Kiel, including a semester abroad at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. She completed her studies last year. Her artistic work has already received multiple awards, most recently the 27th Federal Prize for Art Students.

The 2025 jury for the Gustav Weidanz Prize included Thomas Bauer-Friedrich, Director of the Moritzburg Art Museum Halle (Saale); Professor Kerstin Drechsel, Professor of Painting/Graphics at the Leipzig Academy of Fine Arts; Professor Nathalie Häusler, Professor of Painting/Glass at BURG; sculptor Elisabeth Howey; and Professor Tilo Baumgärtel serving as chair without voting rights, who is Vice-Rector and Professor of Painting at BURG.

The Gustav Weidanz Prize for Sculpture has been awarded since 1975 in accordance with the testamentary provision of Gustav Weidanz (1889-1970), a Halle sculptor and longtime university lecturer at BURG. The award serves to promote young sculptors who are no older than 35 years and have their residence in Germany. The recognition is among the few emerging talent prizes in Germany exclusively reserved for sculptural art. The prize is organized by the Gustav Weidanz Foundation, which belongs to BURG, and is supported by the Friends and Supporters Circle of BURG and Saalesparkasse.