Rene Matić Awarded 2026 Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize

Rene Matić was named the winner of the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize, one of the vital prestigious honors within the subject. They obtained the £30,000 ($40,250) prize for his or her exhibition “AS OPPOSED TO THE TRUTH,” which closed at CCA Berlin in February.

Matić, who relies in London, works throughout pictures, sculpture, sound, poetry, and movie to look at social dynamics of race, gender, and intimacy via the lens of nationwide symbols (flags are a recurring motif). Their apply consists of an excavation of British subculture, together with the “rude boy,” a style and ideological formation that emerged within the aftermath of postcolonial resistance actions.

Part pictures, half sculpture, and half set up, AS OPPOSED TO THE TRUTH positioned itself inside the rise of right-wing populism, asking how the non-public intersects with—and survives—the political. It prolonged an earlier exhibition staged at Vitrine Gallery titled “Born British Die British,” which foregrounded Matić’s relationship with their father.

“Conversation about representation politics comes up so much in photography and in image-making, but we never move past that,” Matić stated in an interview with the gallery. “We don’t talk about what we want to be represented as doing. I want to be represented as being cared for. There are a lot of images of us having violence put on us out there. I want to show a counter-image.”

Born in 1997, Matić is among the many youngest awardees within the prize’s 40-year historical past and the primary British recipient in additional than a decade. They have been additionally a contender for the 2025 Turner Prize, making them the second-youngest nominee within the establishment’s historical past.

They have been chosen from a shortlist that included Iranian photographer Amak Mahmoodian, American photographer Jane Evelyn Atwood, and Polish visible artist Weronika Gęsicka. Each artist will obtain £5,000, and their work will likely be exhibited on the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation in Eschborn, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, from September 3 via January 17, 2027.