Emmélie Lempert
Works, Exhibitions, CV, Press
Emmélie Lempert
2025
Ohne Titel (soft hold)
satin, polyester yarn, steel angle profiles, polycarbonate
66 x 86 cm
The works of Emmélie Lempert occupy a crepuscular space between sculpture, installation, archival gesture, and ritualism. Working mainly with textiles, particularly fabrics associated with intimate proximity to the body, the gendered self serves as Lempert’s primary support. Yet gender takes on a highly surrealistic dimension. Held in abeyance, like entomological specimens sealed between panes of limpid glass, Lempert’s draped yet rigid fabrics flout the structures they outwardly assume. Emerging instead is a more open, nuanced unfolding of what a body can become: a sort of sheathed efflorescence bursting toward something without any specific gender assigned to it.
Lempert’s emphasis on the materiality of fabrics renders them haptic as much as visual. Her works are often site-specific, pushing against the architectural precedents of a surrounding space. A restrained formalism, shaped by soft, muted color palettes, often alludes to a sense of vulnerability ensnared by darker, more instinctual elements. Her textiles become physically activated through ritualistic performances that occur offsite. Although they appear vintage, found, or thrifted, Lempert’s garments and textile forms are entirely her own. Her works—marked by recurring motifs such as elongated fingers and stylized breasts, arms and hands—ultimately dissolve the readymade binaries of clothes and body, ritual and performance, sculpture and installation.
Works
Emmélie Lempert
Ohne Titel (copánkatá)
2026
Lace, ribbons, polyester yarn, polyester fleece, acrylic glass, steel angle profiles
43 x 66 cm
Emmélie Lempert
echo (interwined)
2025
Cotton, fine knit jersey, polyester yarn, cotton ribbons, soil, steel angle profiles, polycarbonate
132 x 86 cm
Emmélie Lempert
Ohne Titel (brittle contact)
2026
Satin, organza, polyester fleece, steel angle profiles, acrylic glass
41 x 41 cm
Emmélie Lempert
ouroboros (soft)
2025
Cotton, polester yarn, foam, wood board
52,5 x 43 x 5 cm
Emmélie Lempert
Ohne Titel (tethered)
2024
Viskose jersey, cotton, polyester yarn, lace, eyelets, steal angle sections, polycarbonate
66 x 43 cm
Emmélie Lempert
Ohne Titel (with strong desire)
2024
Cotton, polyester yarn, eyelets,
earth, steal angle sections,
polycarbonate
66 x 43 cm
Exhibitions
Kost-Probe, 2026, Sammlung Froehlich, Stuttgart, Germany. Photos: Jan Hottmann. Courtesy of Sammlung Froehlich and the artist.
in between, 2026, Galerie 3AP x POV contemporary, Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Photos: Joëlle Pidoux. Courtesy of Galerie 3AP, POV contemporary and the artist.
dear empty apex, 2025, GOODBANK, Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Courtesy of GOODBANK and the artist.
DIE GROSSE 2025, Kunstpalast Dusseldorf, Germany. Courtesy Kunstpalast and the artist.
escape, evolve, escape, 2025, Nails Projectroom e. V., Dusseldorf, Germany. Courtesy Nails Projectroom e.V. and the artist.
BOOBS Now №1, 2024, POV contemporary x Galerie Philipp Anders, Leipzig, Germany. Courtesy of Galerie Philipp Anders and the artists.
Solingen Kunstmuseum 78. Internationale Bergische Kunstausstellung, 2024, Solingen, Germany. Courtesy of Solingen Kunstmuseum and the artists.
Sotheby‘s Cologne, 2024, Group Show during DC-Open, Cologne, Germany. Photo: Fabian Raphael Sokolowski. Courtesy of Sotheby and the artist.
hide, seek, hide, 2024, Graduation show Kunstakademie Dusseldorf, Germany. Photo: Jana Buch. Courtesy the artist.
CV
Emmélie Lempert
b. 1998 in Bonn, Germany
Lives and works in Bonn and Berlin, Germany
EDUCATION
2024
Academy diploma as Meisterschülerin of Prof. Peter Piller
2018-2024
Studies at the Dusseldorf Art Academy, fine arts
AWARDS & GRANTS
2026
(Shortlisted) Young Generation Art Award, Degussa Goldhandel X Monopol Magazine
2025
NRW Förderpreis for artists (visual arts)
(Shortlisted) August Macke Förderpreis, Hochsauerlandkreis Cultural Office
2024
(Shortlisted) 78th International Bergischer Kunstpreis, Kunstmuseum Solingen
2022-2023
Deutschlandstipendium (Federal Ministry of Education and Research)
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2026
MUR BRUT 39, Kunsthalle Dusseldorf, Germany
Kost-Probe, Sammlung Froehlich, Stuttgart, Germany
2025
dear empty apex, GOODBANK, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
escape, evolve, escape, Nails Projectroom e. V., Dusseldorf, Germany
run, birdie, run, Galerie Alex Serra, Cologne, Germany
2024
hide, seek, hide, Graduation show Kunstakademie Dusseldorf, Germany
2023
stretch me if you can, NODEPRESSIONROOM (Duo), Munich, Germany
Und ich wandre sonder Massen, Ohne Ruh’, und suche Ruh, Kunsthalle Dusseldorf, vocal performance, Dusseldorf, Germany
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2026
(upcoming) NOCH NICHT: UTOPIE IM ENTSTEHEN, Kunstverein Ludwigshafen, Ludwigshafen, Germany
Damals, Heute, Morgen, Frauenmuseum Bonn, Bonn, Germany
in between, Galerie 3AP x POV contemporary, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
2025
Young Generation Art Award, Monopol Magazin x Degussa Gold, Nominiertenausstellung, Berlin, Germany
Bridge, JVDW Gallery x suzusan, Dusseldorf, Germany
Salon, POV contemporary, Dusseldorf, Germany
DIE GROSSE 2025, Kunstpalast Dusseldorf, Germany
2024
BOOBS Now Nº1, Galerie Philipp Anders x POV contemporary, Leipzig, Germany
Solingen Kunstmuseum 78. Internationale Bergische Kunstausstellung, Solingen, Germany
Sotheby‘s Cologne, Group Show during DC-Open, Cologne, Germany
fresh positions 2024, BBK Kunst Forum, Dusseldorf, Germany
2023
Rotterdamer Str. 63, Dusseldorf, 18/1 Billboard, presentation of the work ‘tops titched’ as part of the project „Hope this finds you well”, Dusseldorf, Germany
PUBLICATIONS
2024
„Zweitausenddreiundzwanzig - Eine Anleitung zum vergleichenden Sehen“ Kunstakademie Dusseldorf (ed.), Kettler Verlag, Bönen/Wesfalen, Germany
2023
Sample r, Helene Kuschnarew and Franziska Schmitz (eds.)
2021
Humming in Circles, Klasse Peter Piller (ed.), for DIE GROSSE 2021, Kunstpalast Dusseldorf
Press
"‘Being shortlisted for the award feels like an opportunity,’ says Lempert, ‘to give the topics I care about a wider platform.’"
– Frieze London
"Aus Textilien kreiert die Rheinländerin Emmélie Lempert poetische Bildobjekte, die den weiblichen Körper als Schnittstelle von Kontrolle und Widerstand inszenieren. Jetzt ist sie für den Young Generation Art Award nominiert."
– Silke Hohmann, Monopol Magazin
"Emmélie Lempert’s mixed-media pieces vertically reconstruct a world riddled with holes. The textiles situated between planes of glass function as artifacts, implicating the body as both an objective fact and an opening in the felt reality of experience. This collapse of public and private space – an ambiguous vulnerability caught between transparency and translucency – is mirrored in the untitled works of Toni Meyer’s Sofa Series. Here, the luminosity of the prints reveals ever-new planar gaps, new points of entry into the surface of the real. Creating a topography out of the folds of a plush velvet cover, shadows are recast as reflections, and reflectiveness itself becomes labyrinthine."
– Whitehot Magazine
"Vergangenes Jahr hat Emmélie Lempert ihren Abschluss an der Kunstakademie Dusseldorf gemacht. Ihre Kunst entsteht an der Nähmaschine und unterstützt Performances ohne Publikum."
– Laura Dresch, WDR3
Submission, KUBAPARIS
"Die 27 Jahre junge deutsch-tschechische Emmélie Lempert verarbeitet Textilien aus Baumwolle, beispielsweise Korsagen, und presst sie auf Kunststoffglas."
– Rheinische Post
"There are stockings, bras, socks, corsets, and pantaloons. And although they come with signs of wear and tear, it’s hard to imagine how you’re supposed to put on the dear empty apex (2025) bodysuit, for example: Left arm’s missing, right arm’s sewed to the hip, and you better don’t have a right calf, otherwise, it won’t fit. The bonnet is the easiest part. This is so Mrs. Bennet from Pride and Prejudice of her. For beak and hand (2024), Emmélie attached an opening to the left knee. For what? I don’t know whether the hand in between the thighs is an awkward self-covering gesture or a foreign hand groping… Emmélie’s bras and corsets don’t hold a tight shape but form long…yeah how do I put this… boob sleeves?"
– Jennifer Braun, The Gen Z Art Critic
"Emmelie Lempert aus der Klasse Peter Piller hat der Sommerschau einen ästhetischen Gipfel beschert. In weißen, durchweg selbst genähten, jeweils zwischen zwei Platten aus Kunststoffglas gepressten Textilarbeiten aus Baumwolle setzt sie das Thema Körperlichkeit in eigenwillige Bilder um. Dabei durchläuft sie, wie sie sagt, einen Prozess, ein „performatives Ritual."
– Bertram Müller, Rheinische Post
"Lempert hat sich ein Archiv aus Kostümen und Rüstungsteilen geschaffen, rund 30 handgefertigte Stücke, die sie für Performances nutzt – hier stellt sie hinter Plexiglas einen Anzug aus, an dem noch ein wenig Erde von einer Film-Session im Wald klebt."
– Petra Kuiper, NRZ