LEYLA YENIRCE
Leyla Yenirce (b. 1992, Qubîn, Kurdistan) is currently based in Berlin, Germany. She is a cultural theorist, filmmaker, musician, painter, performer and installation artist, combining all the aforementioned mediums in her artistic practice. Yenirce’s willingness to transcend the boundaries of set disciplines enables the artist to unite what is often mutually exclusive: feminism and war, pop culture and genocide, genuine longing and detached irony.
Having graduated from the Hamburg University of Fine Arts, Yenirce’s first solo exhibition SO MUCH ENERGY took place at the Kunsthaus Hamburg in 2022. In 2024, her video work Being Stong is Hard was screened at the International Film Festival Rotterdam.
The artist will also participate in group exhibitions at Museum Folkwang, Essen. Among other notable institutions, Yenirce has exhibited at the Kunsthalle Münster (2024); Haus der Kunst, Munich (2023); Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst, Leipzig (2023) and Halle für Kunst Lueneburg (2022). Yenirce is one of the recipients of the 2024 Kunstpreis Berlin and 2022 ars viva Prize. In addition to numerous other scholarships and prizes, including Federal Prize for Art Students, Bonn (2021), the Playground Art Prize, Nuremberg (2021) and the Hamburg Music Prize (2019), Yenirce has been part of various group exhibitions, including Video Digest #1, Moltkerei, Cologne (2023), Gallery Weekend Festival, Studio Mondial, Berlin (2023), Kein Schlussstrich Festival, Kampnagel, Hamburg (2021), Paradise, Kurdish Film Festival, Berlin (2020) and Hi Ventilation, Kunstverein Harburger Bahnhof, Hamburg (2019).
Her work is held in the permanent collection of the Mudam, Luxembourg, Detroit Institute of Arts Museum and Kistefos Museum, Norway.
Text courtesy Petzel Gallery
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