Kerstin Brätsch

Kerstin Brätsch (b. Hamburg, Germany) lives and works between New York and Berlin. Brätsch received an MFA from Columbia University in New York in 2007 and an MFA at Universität der Künste in Berlin in 2008. Brätsch has been the subject of several solo exhibitions at the Fondazione Memmo, Rome (2018) including KAYA, and the Museum Brandhorst, Münich (2017). Brätsch has also participated in group exhibitions at the The Museum of Modern Art, New York (2023, 2014); Camden Arts Center, London (2020); and was shown at the Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York as KAYA (2017). The artist has had work commissioned by several institutions including: Gropius Bau, Berlin (2024); Fridericianum, Kassel, Germany (2023); LUMA Foundation, Café du Parc, Arles, France (2021); and the Museum of Modern Art, New York (2019). Brätsch’s permanent children’s space, BAUBAU , at the Gropius Bau opened in 2024 and will be an ongoing project over the next several years with plans to expand into an outdoor area. In 2024, Brätsch’s sculpture “Fossil Psychic Stone Mimicry (Palladiana, Mosaico_Bench I)” was commissioned by the New York High Line and will be on view through September 2025. Brätsch is one of 18 artists commissioned to create a mosaic floor medallion at John F. Kennedy International Airport's new Terminal 6, set to open in 2026 in Queens, New York. Brätsch has been the recipient of many awards, including the Rosenthal Family Foundation Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York (2022); the Guenther Peill Prize from the Guenther Peill Foundation, Germany (2020); the Helen Frankenthaler Award for Painting from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, New York (2020); the Edward Munch Award, Oslo, Norway (2017); and the August Macke Prize, Germany (2014). Since 2010, Brätsch has also worked collectively under the moniker, KAYA, with artist Debo Eilers. Brätsch has an upcoming solo show at the Munch Museum, Oslo, in March 2025, which will travel to Kunstmuseum Bonn, Germany in December 2025. Brätsch will also have a solo exhibition at Casa São Roque in Porto, Portugal opening October 2025. As of 2024, Brätsch holds a professorship for Painting at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste Hamburg, Germany. ↓ Biography ↓ Bibliography