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Prof. Dr. Nina Gerlach

Aesthetics and art sciences / Rector

Ph. +49 251 83 61330 F. +49 251 83 61430
n.gerlach[at]kunstakademie-muenster.de
Office hours: thursdays, 16:15 – 18:00
Leonardo-Campus 2

Nina Gerlach (born in 1979) has been Rector of the University of Fine Arts Münster since 2021 and Professor of aesthetics and art sciences since 2015. Gerlach studied European art history, ancient history, media and communication studies in Heidelberg and Mannheim (M. A. in 2005) and, until her intermediate exam (2002), media art/film at the Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design.

From 2005 to 2010, she completed her doctorate in European art history at the University of Heidelberg (Prof. Dr. Michael Hesse, Prof. Dr. Jürgen Müller/TU Dresden) and was a fellow at Harvard University/Dumbarton Oaks (2008–2009). Her dissertation, published in 2012 (Gartenkunst im Spielfilm. Das Filmbild als Argument. Wilhelm Fink Verlag), highlights the role of gardens as a visual argument in epistemological and moral philosophical discourses of feature films.

Gerlach was a member of the NCCR Iconic Criticism (Eikones/University of Basel) from 2010 to 2013. Here, she examined the integration of technological innovations in video art and their displays using the example of online video portals. The project introduces theories of interpictoriality and cognitive metaphors into contemporary art theory.

From 2006 to 2015, Gerlach was a lecturer at the universities of Heidelberg, Basel, Friedrichshafen and Cologne and a substitute professor at the University of Fine Arts Münster.

Nina Gerlach represents an art science that focuses on the central challenges of contemporary society.

  • Rector of the University of Fine Arts Münster (since 2021)
  • Vice-rector of the University of Fine Arts Münster (2018–2021)
  • Member of the advisory council of the Art Law Clinic of the Institute for Information, Telecommunication and Media Law – Civil Law Department, University of Münster and the University of Fine Arts Münster, chaired by Prof. Dr. Thomas Hoeren (since 2018)
  • Liaison lecturer of the German National Academic Foundation (since 2018)
  • Member of the commission of the German National Academic Foundation (2017)
  • Liaison lecturer of the University of Fine Arts Münster (2016–2020)
  • Member of the review board Studies in Communication Sciences. Journal of the Swiss Association of Communication and Media Research (2010)
  • Digitality, art/business and the social present (artificial emotional intelligence, big data, video portals, trans-/posthumanism, computerised painting since the 1950s)
  • Aesthetics, history, image and media theory (computer-based arts, film, garden art, video art)
  • Art theory and sociology of the 20th and 21st centuries
  • Visual discourses of contemporary art (ethics, epistemology, art theory, images of man)
  • Visual culture studies (including visual children & childhood studies)
  • Art and human rights/democracy
  • Ulrich Hahn Prize for special academic achievements in the field of art history (Institute for European Art History at the University of Heidelberg, 2005)
  • Doctoral scholarship, research and language travel grants: Canada, Great Britain, USA (German Academic Scholarship Foundation, 2006-2010)
  • Readership & Fellowship (Harvard University/Dumbarton Oaks, 2007, 2008-2009)
  • Group Prize for the Interdisciplinary Forum of Heidelberg University (Friends of the Society of Friends of Heidelberg University, 2009)
  • August Grisebach Prize for an outstanding doctorate (Institute for European Art History at Heidelberg University, 2010)
  • Printing cost grant (Heidelberg University, Excellence Initiative, Graduate Academy, 2010)
  • Printing costs grant (Siblings Boehringer Ingelheim Foundation for the Humanities, 2011)
  • Travel scholarship: Japan (University of Basel, travel fund for young academics, 2013)
  • Mentorship German Switzerland (Swiss National Science Foundation und Federal Program for Equal Opportunities, 2012-2014)

Postdigitality, computers and painting

  • gem. mit Simon Vagts, Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Marta Herford (Hg.): Zwischen Pixel und Pigment. Malerei der postdigitalen Gegenwart/Between Pixel and Pigment. Painting in the Postdigital Presence. Berlin (Dietrich Reimer Verlag 2025). (In Vorbereitung)
  • gem. mit Simon Vagts: „Einleitung". In: Dies., Simon Vagts, Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Marta Herford (Hg.): Zwischen Pixel und Pigment. Malerei der postdigitalen Gegenwart/Between Pixel and Pigment. Painting in the Postdigital Presence. Berlin (Dietrich Reimer Verlag 2025). (In Vorbereitung).
  • „Daten und malerische Erkenntniskritik – Julie Freemans We Need Us (seit 2014) und Kasimir S. Malewitschs Suprematismus“. In: Dies., Simon Vagts, Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Marta Herford (Hg.): Zwischen Pixel und Pigment. Malerei der postdigitalen Gegenwart/Between Pixel and Pigment. Painting in the Postdigital Presence. Berlin (Dietrich Reimer Verlag 2025). (In Vorbereitung)
  • „Malerei, das Malerische im post-(digitalen) Zeitalter". In: Kritische Berichte, Bd. 47, Nr. 1 (2019), S. 17–33 (englische Übersetzung: „A Brief History of Computer-Based Painting“. 2021, online auf ART-Dok).

Science fiction and artificial emotional intelligence

  • "Ex Machina (2015): All-over-Ästhetik Künstlicher Emotionaler Intelligenz oder unsere Zukunft zwischen Technikdarwinismus und 'Vertrauensfrage'". In: Marcus Stiglegger, Christoph Wagner (Hg.): Film, Bild, Emotion. Film und Kunstgeschichte im postkinematografischen Zeitalter (Zoom. Perspektiven der Moderne, Bd. 7). Berlin (Reimer, 2021, S. 386–417). online auf ART-Dok
    Informationen zur Publikation auf der Website des Verlags

(Online) video art, video platforms as displays and interpictoriality/intericonicity

Garden art in feature films, intermediality and visual moral and cognitive philosophy

Documentary film theory and animal film

  • „Zwischen Pigment und Pixel. Hybride Malerei in postdigitale Zeiten“ (Benedikt Fahrnschon, Kunsthalle Bielefeld; Ann Kristin Kreisel, Marta Herford; Kathleen Rahn, Marta Herford; Christina Végh, Kunsthalle Bielefeld), Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Bielefeld (07.07.–10.11.2024 und Marta Herford, Herford, (07.07.–10.11.2024) Süddeutsche Zeitung und KUNSTFORUM International.
    • Sientific consulting
    • Conference conception together with Dr. Simon Vagts: „Postdigital Painting. (Re:)vise Revolution
    • Co-editor of the catalog (together with Simon Vagts, Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Marta Herford) and author: Zwischen Pixel und Pigment. Malerei der postdigitalen Gegenwart/Between Pixel and Pigment. Painting in the Postdigital Presence. Berlin (Dietrich Reimer Verlag 2025, in preparation)
  • „En prison / Im Gefängnis“ (Dr. Roger Mayou), Musée international de la Croix-Rouge et du Croissant-Rouge, Genf, 05.02.–18.08.2019 (Musée des Confluences, Lyon, 18.10.2019–26.07.2020) und Deutsches Hygiene-Museum, Dresden, (26.09.2020–02.01.2022), report by the Radio Télévision Suisse on the exhibition
    • Film compilation „Vollzug“ (together with Roman Podeszwa, 2018)
  •  „Gärten der Welt“ (Dr. Albert Lutz und Dr. Hans von Trotha), Museum Rietberg, Zurich, 13.05.-09.10.2016, review in the Neuen Züricher Zeitung
    • Consulting in the field of film studies
    • Catalog contribution: "Der Trockengarten in Mizoguchis Genroku Chushingura (1941/42) und Ozus Banshun (1949) – Ein nationales Symbol im historischen Wandel". In: Albert Lutz (ed.): Gärten der Welt. Orte der Sehnsucht und Inspiration. Köln (Wienand publishing) 2016, pp. 136-141
    • Film compilation „Gardens are described as retreats when they are really attacks“ (together with Roman Podeszwa, 2016)

Current dissertations (in German)

  • Malte Frey: „In the Wake of Ghost in the Shell: Subjektvorstellungen in den Postcyberpunk-Anime von Ghost in the Shell und Psycho-Pass. Eine raum-analytische Untersuchung“

    Kontakt und CV: www.maltefrey.de

Student and scientific assistants