NZZ Art Edition: Steiger and Schwartz in Conversation
Painting Meets Photography: Rebekka Steiger and Daniel Schwartz are collaborating on the NZZ Art Edition for September 5, 2026—and in doing so, they are opening up new perspectives that bridge the gap between imagination and documented reality.
NZZ Art Edition: When Painting and Photography Meet
On Saturday, September 5, 2026, the NZZ Art Edition of the *Neue Zürcher Zeitung* will be published featuring an unusual collaboration: painter Rebekka Steiger and photographer Daniel Schwartz are co-creating the issue—and in doing so, engaging in a dynamic artistic dialogue. Two fundamentally different artistic visions come together to form a unified composition that is far greater than the sum of its parts.
Rebekka Steiger works with mythical forms and poetic colors, guided by her intuition. Daniel Schwartz, on the other hand, takes a documentary approach to his subjects and views photography first and foremost as a craft. It is these differing approaches that give their collaboration its special appeal. «Photography depicts reality, while painting creates an image from the imagination. This creates a dialogue,» says Schwartz in an NZZ interview with Roman Bucheli. Steiger adds: «We’re vying for attention. But not with the intention of crowding each other out; rather, a tension arises at the edges of the images.»
Thirty Dreams and Five Glaciers
Rebekka Steiger created the series «Dreams,» consisting of thirty small-format paintings, exclusively for the NZZ. Each painting stands on its own. At the same time, when viewed as a group, the series forms a carefully constructed overall composition in which animals, landscapes, and human figures appear and then fade away.
Daniel Schwartz selected five glacier images from his global long-term project «While the Fires Burn. A Glacier Odyssey» for the NZZ edition «theatrum Alpinum.» For this edition, the images were produced as photogravures for the first time. The double interview by Roman Bucheli complements the issue’s content and gives the two artists space to explain their perspectives.
Exhibition at the Urs Meile Gallery in Zurich
From September 4 to 7, 2026, the Urs Meile Gallery in Zurich will present one-of-a-kind works and editions by Rebekka Steiger and Daniel Schwartz. The exhibition «I rode to meet you» invites visitors to discover the works in person. Starting September 10, 2026, Steiger’s works will continue to be on display at the same gallery.
Rebekka Steiger and Daniel Schwartz
Rebekka Steiger, born in Zurich in 1993, completed her art studies at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts in 2016. In her large-format paintings, she combines abstract and figurative painting with an expressive style. Studio residencies in Beijing (2018) and Vietnam (2022) had a formative influence on her work. Her work has been exhibited at venues including the Kunstmuseum Thun, where the exhibition «Bīngfēng» took place in 2025; a monograph was published by Hatje Cantz to accompany the exhibition.
Daniel Schwartz, born in Olten in 1955, graduated from the photography program at the Zurich School of Applied Arts (now ZHdK) in 1980. In 1987 and 1988, he documented the Great Wall of China; since the 1990s, he has documented the environment and conflicts in the deltas of Asia, in Central Asia, and in Afghanistan. Major photo essays have been published in the cultural magazine «Du» and in the «Neue Zürcher Zeitung.» In 2010, he received the Culture Prize of the Canton of Zurich, and in 2019, the Art Prize of the Canton of Solothurn.
More information about the works and the artists is available on the NZZ Art website: https://www.nzz.ch/nzz-art
