Karimah Ashadu

Karimah Ashadu is the recipient of the 2026 Philipp Otto Runge Fellowship. As part of the 9th Triennial of Photography Hamburg 2026, the Hamburger Kunsthalle will present Karimah Ashadu’s film MUSCLE (2025) in the exhibition BUT I | WORLD | I SEE | YOU.

Philipp Otto Runge Foundation is dedicated to the memory of the artist Philipp Otto Runge (1777-1810), a famous German painter who was together with Caspar David Friedrich the leading figure of the Romantic Art. The Hamburger Kunsthalle owns his most important works. Throughout his life the artist was supported by his brother Johann Daniel Runge (1767-1856), who promoted his studies and his ideas in an extraordinary way.

Continuing this tradition, the Philipp Otto Runge Foundation supports artists, the development of their investigations and artistic production. The Fellowship is intended to enable artists to present themselves to a large audience at the Hamburger Kunsthalle. The funding is meant to support exhibitions, publications, travels or research. Fellows of the last years were Susan Philipsz, Dominik Halmer, Manuel Rossner, Vibha Galhotra, Jenevieve Aken, Thea Djordjadze and Truong Công Tùng.

Karimah Ashadu (born in London in 1985) is a British-born Nigerian artist and film director who lives and works between Hamburg and Lagos. Her prevailing socially relevant work is concerned with labor and self-determination practices pertaining to the social, economic and cultural context of West Africa and its diaspora. The film MUSCLE (2025) is an intimate portrait of bodybuilders in the heart of Lagos’s slums who strive to achieve a hypermasculine ideal and continues the artist’s exploration of issues surrounding socio-economic independence and patriarchy within the context of West African culture and society.