Wolfgang Brenner is representing the Hanseatic City of Paderborn in Poland

14  April 2026:

The Paderborn-based artist Wolfgang Brenner has successfully entered the “HANSEartWORKS 2026” art competition and will represent the Hanseatic City of Paderborn in June at the 46th International Hanseatic Day in Stargard (Poland). His collage work, entitled “Water Flows”, was selected for the competition on the theme of “The Power of Water”. His participation is supported and sponsored by the municipal project team “City. People. River. – The Pader for Europe”.

“With my screen-printed collage, I explore the fascinating and compelling theme of water as a silent yet constant presence,” explains Wolfgang Brenner. “In doing so, I have combined photographic fragments as serigraphy, painterly overlays and graphic structures into a multi-layered topography of flow,” says the artist. The scene Brenner has captured shows several ships moving along a wide river. The water becomes a driving force.

Wolfgang Brenner, who moved to Paderborn from the Rhineland in 1976 and has been working as a freelance artist since 1998, maintains numerous international contacts within the art scene. He has a particularly deep connection with Paderborn’s twin town, Przemyśl. That is why he is all the more delighted to now be part of an exhibition in Poland.

The exhibition will take place at Stargard City Library from 11 to 14 June 2026 to mark International Hanseatic Day. In addition to Wolfgang Brenner’s collage, 17 further works by international artists have been selected by a renowned jury and will be on display in the library’s exhibition hall from 12 to 30 June.

“HANSEartWORKS” is an international festival and exhibition project. It is designed as a group exhibition with a representative character and is an integral part of every International Hanseatic Day. The aim is to provide a forum for contemporary art in and from the member cities of the world’s largest voluntary association of cities. The call for entries for this year’s project states, among other things: “The aim of the exhibitions is not only to present the aesthetic power of water, but also to encourage visitors to reflect on its role in our daily lives as well as in a broader cultural and social context.”

In 1295, Paderborn was first mentioned in a document as a member of the first historical Hanseatic League. Today, the city of Paderborn is a member of both the international “DIE HANSE City Alliance” and the “Westphalian Hanseatic League”.

Bildinformation: Artist Wolfgang Brenner (left) and EKS programme director Dr Michael Ströhmer display the collage entitled “Water Flows”.