COLOGNE.- After a thorough upgrading of exhibitor quality, a select group of 140 galleries will be showcasing works in categories ranging from modernism to contemporary art from 16th to 20th April at ART COLOGNE 2008. The special Open Space segment will offer exhibition space to the projects of about 50 artists. Additional highlights of ART COLOGNE 2008 will include previously unknown and newly discovered works on the art market through the special programmes Hidden Treasures, New Contemporaries and New Talents.

ART COLOGNE – Hidden Treasures - In 2008, ART COLOGNE will once again generate momentum and offer practical assistance to collectors who would like to buy promising works of art. Through its annual special show "Hidden Treasures", ART COLOGNE reminds visitors of artists who have had a major influence on contemporary art and the younger generation of artists, but whose works are hardly to be seen in the current art market or are being sold at prices below their real value. The "Hidden Treasures" of ART COLOGNE 2008 are the works of Norbert Kricke ( Galerie Strelow, Düsseldorf/ Galerie Wahlandt, Stuttgart ), Ulrike Rosenbach ( Galerie March, Stuttgart ), Fritz Winter ( Galerie Utermann, Dortmund) and Karl Bohrmann (manus presse, Stuttgart ).

ART COLOGNE – New Talents - One of the oldest special programmes for sponsoring young artists and innovative new works of art is New Talents. For this year's ART COLOGNE, a six-member jury chose works by 17 young artists from nine different countries. It was by no means easy for the jurors to make their final selections.

Many of the artists whose creations will be on display work in several genres — combining, for instance, sculpture and video art — and use modern techniques. One noticeable trait of this group of artists is their focus on the lives and environments of people on the margins of society and on their own existence as artists. An independent jury will honour the "best of the best" of these new talents with the ART COLOGNE Young Artist Prize. Besides a solo exhibition at the Cologne artothek, the recipient of the prize will also have his or her works published in a catalogue with a total value of approx. 10,000 Euro.