Isabell Alexandra Meldner receives the Caspar David Friedrich Prize

The young artist Isabell Alexandra Meldner is awarded this year's Caspar David Friedrich Prize. The student of the Dresden University of Fine Arts, who was born in Berlin, focuses on the combination of different media in her works. She was particularly convincing with her poetic visual language and her sensitivity to colors, light and shadow, the jury said in its statement. The 28-year-old will receive the prize on Saturday in Greifswald, the birthplace of the romantic painter. That's also when her solo exhibition "Time Takes too Long to Last," featuring installations, photographs, videos and sound works, will open.

Time plays an important role in her artistic work, Meldner told Deutsche Presse-Agentur. "I asked myself the question: How can one perceive time at all?" Each of the four exhibition spaces in Greifswald should treat temporality differently, she said. "It was also interesting for me that the building used to be a residential building," Meldner told us. She picked up on the living room character of the rooms, for example, by using curtains. The exhibition will be on display for two months and, in addition to the prize money of 2,500 euros and the publication of a series of postcards, is part of the award.

In the meantime, she herself is noticing more and more connections between her work and that of the Romantic painter, reported Meldner, who commutes between Dresden, Prague and her native city of Berlin. "It's exciting to see what relevance Friedrich still has."

30 young artists had applied for the prize this year. It has been offered since 2001 by the Caspar David Friedrich Society at the art academies in Dresden and Copenhagen and at the Caspar David Friedrich Institute in Greifswald.