Elif Saydam has received the Tiemann Prize for Contemporary Painting 2026, and six works from her Späti series, made between 2021 and 2025, will enter the collection of Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart in Berlin. The prize was presented on Friday 30 October 2026 at the museum, where Saydam also took part in a public conversation that afternoon.

The prize is awarded by the Ingeborg and Dr. H. Jürgen Tiemann Foundation, which is giving it for the fourth time this year. It enables the museum to acquire the six paintings for its collection, where they will form part of the new collection presentation Tausendmal Berlin, which opened on 12 June 2026 and looks at the Berlin art scene since 1989 in global dialogue. The works are to remain on view until at least 2029.

The Späti takes its name from Berlin's late-night corner kiosk, the small shop that anchors street life in the city after dark. Saydam's series treats that everyday institution as a stage for questions of identity, belonging and urban life, painted in a language of her own. The museum said the acquisition deliberately strengthens positions that address those themes from a contemporary perspective.

The prize jury said it was convinced by the artistic quality of the proposed group of works and by their lasting place in the museum's collection. Saydam's paintings will hang alongside the museum's holdings in a presentation that is actively reshaping the collection around the city's recent history. For Saydam, the award puts a series rooted in the most ordinary corners of Berlin into one of Germany's most prominent public collections.