Art Vontobel - Photo wall in red and yellow with a photo series in the staff restaurant

Art Vontobel

Photography as a mirror of the present

Promoting art and integrating it into our everyday lives is a part of our corporate culture. We collect contemporary art, with the focus on contemporary photographic and photography-based works, which we display on our premises, and support young artists by helping them realize new projects.

Art Vontobel - Red picture with a woman with closed eyes in the background

Art Vontobel

Since its establishment, our Collection explores how artists today seek new ways of capturing and conveying the human experience in a rapidly changing world though photographic and image-based art. Internationally oriented and, moreover, primarily dedicated to identifying and nurturing young and emerging talent, Art Vontobel mirrors the company as a globally active investment firm with a forward-looking approach.

Our commitment to art is an expression of our social responsibility overall. The decision to focus the Collection on one medium alone allows for a view of the present that is at once dynamic and resolute, a blend we believe offers a unique platform for new perspectives and dialogue. While photography forms the basis, many of our artists’ work expand on the medium. This is only natural in the rapidly changing context of visual media in the 21st century—in particular the use of the photographic image—and helps create a nuanced understanding of the many modes of artistic expressions today.

We invite you to explore our Collection and the various facets and questions shaping it: Discover how, on the one hand, both firmly established but mainly up-and-coming artists engage with the social, cultural, or political realities of the moment in which we live. And, on the other, the diverse—and most current—ways in which artists use photography, be it sculpturally, AI generated or as an NFT, to address the many complex narratives that define our era.

 

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A New Gaze

“A New Gaze” is a sponsorship award for young contemporary photographers. Vontobel gives out the award every two years, each time enabling an international artist to implement an idea for a project from its conception through to the exhibition and exhibition catalogue.

The award is geared towards young artists at the beginning of their careers. Before each call for submissions, Vontobel selects a continent and a topic. With the help of experts from the local art and photography scene, we invite 50 to 100 nominees to submit an idea for a project. A jury decides on the winning project, which the artist can then realize with the support of the curator team within 18 months. The award comes with a grant of CHF 20,000. In addition to this sum, we finance the production, exhibition, and publication of the work. The project culminates in a publicly accessible exhibition at the Vontobel Headquarters in Zurich.

More about “A New Gaze”

A New Gaze by Art Vontobel - Blue jellyfish on a black background

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Art at Vontobel - Installation view, Frank van Der Salm
Installation view, Frank van Der Salm, “Zürich”, 2019. © Conradin Frei
Art at Vontobel - Installation view, Barbara Probst with chairs in front and a woman who's sitting there
Installation view, Barbara Probst, “Exposure #117.09: N.Y.C., Collister & Hubert Street, 11.03.15, 2:31 p.m., 2015”, 2019. © Conradin Frei
Art at Vontobel - Installation view, Kyungwoo Chun
Installation view, Kyungwoo Chun, “Face of Face 6”, 2017. © Conradin Frei
Art at Vontobel - Installation view, Thorsten Brinkmann
Installation view, Thorsten Brinkmann, “Supra”, 2015. © Conradin Frei
Art at Vontobel - Installation view, Stéphane Couturier in the staff restaurant UTO
Installation view, Stéphane Couturier, “Les Nouveaux Constructeurs, Sète – Pont Sadi-Carnot n°2”, 2018. / Kurt Caviezel, “Heaven”, 2016 © Conradin Frei

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Contact

Portrait of Georgina Casparis, Art Vontobel Head & Curator at Vontobel

Georgina Casparis

Art Vontobel Head & Curator

Portrait of Alice Motte-Muñoz at Vontobel

Alice Motte-Muñoz

Art Collection Manager

Portrait of Christian Schilz at Vontobel

Christian Schilz

Head Corporate Responsibility

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