Berlin art: What exhibitions are on now?

New: Charlottenburg Gallery Tour

Around 40 galleries are taking part in the Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf gallery tour this year.  The exhibitions feature paintings, sculptures, photographs, installations and poster art. Modern and contemporary works are exhibited as well as art from the early 20th century. Numerous exhibitions will be opened on the occasion of the gallery tour. 

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• Galleries across Charlottenberg, details, on 26.11.22.

New: Alban Muja, ‘Sooner rather than later you will catch the sight’

For this year’s “Manifesta” art festival held in Prishtina, Kosovo, Alban Muja built a provisional house on top of a former department store – a commentary on housing shortages and private property. Born in Mitrovica in 1980, the artist and filmmaker is exhibiting work at the Reiter Galleries.

• Reiter Galleries Potsdamer Str. 81b, Schöneberg, details, 25.11.22 – 21.1.23

New: Thomas Ruff, ‘d.o.pe’.

Thomas Ruff became famous for his austere portraits, which were reminiscent of mug shots. This was followed by architectural shots testifying to the Federal Republic’s hard exterior. Ruff has also explored outer space with his collaborative work with NASA photographs. Since then, the Düsseldorf photographer has moved on from stardust to digital motifs which he creates himself, and has printed onto carpets.

• Galerie Sprüth Magers Oranienburger Str. 18, Mitte, details, 26.11.22 – 31.1.23

New: Antoni Starczewski, ‘The Idea of Linear Notation‘

The Nadan Art Space pays tribute to the artist Antoni Starczewski (1924-2000). Originally from Łódź, Poland, Starczewski was little known in his own country. The multidisciplinary artist was inspired by the rhythm of music and language and created an oeuvre of ceramics, graphics, textile works and installations. He had a significant influence on Polish and international art, as evidenced by his participation in Biennials from Florence to Tokyo. This exhibition at Nadan comprises 30 works from the 1960s to the 1980s, which are still fascinating in their clarity today.

• Nadan Meraner Str. 7, Wilmersdorf, details, 11.11.22 – 13.1.23.

New: Emma Stibbon, ‘Vanishing Point’

British artist Emma Stibbon uses her work to reflect how the climate crisis is rapidly changing landscapes. With a particular focus on its effects on polar regions, mountain and forest regions, Stibbon creates striking drawings and woodcuts.

• Galerie Bastian Taylorstr. 1, Zehlendorf, details, 5.11.22 – 7.1.23

New: ‘1922 – George Grosz travels to Soviet Russia’

In 1922, when Russian avant-garde artists fled to Berlin from the newly founded Soviet Union, George Grosz travelled in the opposite direction: to Moscow, where he’s said to have met with Lenin himself. The following year, however, he resigned from the KPD (the German Communist Party). This new exhibition in the Grosz Museum aims to shed light on whether the artist’s decision was a consequence of this journey. The exhibition focuses on Grosz’s works from this era, including his lithograph “Ants” from the portfolio “In the Shadow” (1921). In addition, the Grosz Museum team was able to conduct research in Russian archives before the war against Ukraine.

• Kleines Grosz Museum Bülowstr. 18, Schöneberg, details, 24.11.22 – 30.4.23

Last Chance: Simon Wachsmuth, ‘Seven Deadly Sins’

For his third solo exhibition at Zilbermann Gallery, Simon Wachsmuth attempts to connect thoughts on war, power and the artist’s relevance, or lack thereof. With a series of installations and photo-tableaus, Wachsmuth’s works guide visitors through histories of the artist’s own home and work environments in Berlin.

• Zilberman Gallery Goethestr. 82, Charlottenburg, details, 08.09 – 26.11.2022.

Last Chance: Sonia Boyce, ‘How (not) to present a collection: A representation of One of Six Acts – Ain’t Misbehavin’

In a space almost directly opposite from the controversial Humboldt Forum, British artist Sonia Boyce screens the video work ‘How (not) to present a collection: A representation of One of Six Acts – Ain’t Misbehavin’. The work features non-binary POC performance artist Lasana Shabazz, who explores histories of blackface and drag performance in both the theatre canon and museum institution.

• Aktionsraum Spreeufer Spreeufer 6, Mitte, details, until 27.11.22

‘Deep Rivers Flow Gently’ at the Czech Embassy

The Czech Embassy is an architectural highlight in its own right, but its cultural centre is currently hosting an exhibition that’s also worth a visit. The showcase, ‘Deep Rivers Flow Gently’, features paintings, sculptures and video works by three young Czech artists. The exhibition focuses on the theme of sustainability, discussing topics like mushroom ecosystems, bee swarm-visualisations and water scarcity.

• Czech Embassy, Wilhelmstraße 44, Mitte (entrance on Mohrenstraße), details, 20.10.22 – 18.2.23

Sony World Photography Awards 2022

This acclaimed and wide-ranging competition shows outstanding photographic works from a variety of categories such as architecture and design, creative, documentary, environmental, landscape, portrait, sports, still life and nature. For its 15th edition, more than 100 selected photographs by winners and nominees will be exhibited at the Willy-Brandt-Haus.

• Willy-Brandt-Haus, Wilhelmstraße 140, Kreuzberg, details, 21.10.22 – 15.1.23

Harun Farocki, ‘Against War’

For more than 50 years, Harun Farocki made over 120 films dealing with war. The Czech-born artist was preoccupied with the systems of power behind war imagery, and the way these images were spread and manipulated. The Barbara Weiss Gallery is showing a selection of Farocki’s work, beginning with his focus on the Vietnam War and the Iranian Revolution and extending to the wars in the Persian Gulf and the Balkans. Among the collection are some rarely shown films, as well as photographs by the artist Armin Linke, with whom Farocki often collaborated.

• Galerie Barbara Weiss, Kohlfurterstraße 41/43, Kreuzberg, details, 18.11.22 – 14.1.23

‘TonArt, Female Composers’

In this group show at the Galerie im Amalienpark, the contributing artists focus on the work of exclusively female musical composers. Through drawing, painting and sculpture, they celebrate the lives and works of women who have often been silenced in the musical canon. The exhibition is accompanied by a series of concerts, films and talks leading the audience through the history (and present) of female composers.

• Galerie im Amalienpark Breitestraße 23, Pankow, details, 4.11.22 – 14.1.23

Almut Linde, ‘Still Alive’

In her work, Almut Linde collaborates with those people who are typically at the margins of society. She confronts viewers with uncomfortable realities around superficiality, beauty and poverty. The centrepiece of her solo exhibition at PSM Gallery is a room filled with white balloons which viewers must wade through. The balloons are filled with the breath of different homeless and disempowered people who Linde has encountered. Visitors must experience a kind of disembodied contact with the breath (an intimate thing) of people they would typically stay away from. The exhibition also features a collection of hand-written notes in which homeless people have recorded their thoughts and feelings.

• PSM Galerie Schöneberger Ufer 61, Tiergarten, details, 11.11.22 – 7.1.23

Wu Tsang, ‘Of Whales’

‘Of Whales’ is the culmination of artist-filmmaker Wu Tsang’s study of Herman Melville’s 1851 novel ‘Moby Dick’. Tsang’s large-scale installation, which features a surreal marine environment, can be visited free of charge at the Gropius Bau’s atrium. The work’s immersive 16-channel audio establishes a soundscape that fills the entire space, inviting viewers to imagine a closeness with aquatic species deep below the ocean’s surface.

• Gropius Bau, Niederkirchnerstraße 7, Kreuzberg, details, 19.11.22 – 29.1.23

Dew in the Sun

Olena Pronkina won the Claus Michaletz Prize, an endowment worth €10,000 and a presentation at the Kunstverein Ost. The artist is exhibiting at Kvost under the title “Dew in the Sun” (a line from the first stanza of the Ukrainian national anthem). It features sculptures and paintings, including surreal landscapes and interiors, whose inhabitants are alienated from themselves and their surroundings. Pronkina, born in Uzbekistan, fled Kyiv before the war.

• Kvost, Leipziger Str. 47, Mitte, details, extended until 3.12.22.

Haroon Mirza, ‘energy/power’

In his work, British-Pakistani artist Haroon Mirza poses questions around nature and technology. Mirza is exhibiting a collection of installations at Galerie Max Goelitz – a Munich-based gallery which has just opened a new space here in Berlin. This artist’s work uses electricity as its medium, creating sculptural installations and audio compositions. At Galerie Max Goelitz, light, sound and photovoltaic panels come together to create a stunning audiovisual experience. But beyond the spectacle, Mirza explores the fantastic possibilities behind energy-production.

• Galerie Max Goelitz, Rudi-Dutschke-Straße 26 (1st floor), Mitte, details, 11.11.22 – 28.01.23

‘125 Years of Noack’

The famous Noack Sculpture Foundry has produced sculptures for Wilhelm Lehmbruck, Käthe Kollwitz, Georg Baselitz, among others. It’s also where the Berlinale has its award sculptures made. It’s safe to say that the history of sculpture in Germany over the 20th century is closely linked to the Noack. This year, the Noack turns 125 and is celebrating with a retrospective anniversary exhibition – taking visitors on a journey into the history of the Noack. On Saturday November 12th, the exhibition will open with a book presentation followed by a party in the Bar Brass restaurant.

• Noack Sculpture Foundry, Am Spreebord 9, Charlottenburg, details, 11.11.22 – 03.02.23

‘Michael Majerus, Painting, 1994’

The work of Luxembourgish painter Michael Majerus, who tragically passed away 20 years ago at just 35, is now being revisited in a big way. Works by the artist have been exhibited at 5 different exhibitions across Berlin this year. The Neugerriemschneider is contributing to this massive retrospective with an exhibition dedicated to the artist’s early work. ‘Painting, 1994’ takes another look at Majerus’ first collaboration with the gallery (then based in Charlottenburg) back in 1994. Almost 30 years on, the current showcase reconstructs that earlier exhibition through an immersive installation.

• Neugerriemschneider, Linienstraße 155, Mitte, details, 8.11.22 – 14.01.23

Stefanie Heinze, ‘Dimensions of the Fool’

Whimsical, enigmatic, opalescent. The paintings of Berlin-based artist Stefanie Heinze reflect an amalgamation of everyday objects and dreamlike motifs – oscillating between figuration and abstraction. Driven by an interest in psychology, class critique, sexuality and politics, Heinze transfers the composition of her paintings from collaged drawings to large-format canvases. For this showcase at Capitain Petzel, the artist exhibits a collection of large-format paintings and drawings that define her work.

• Capitain Petzel, Karl-Marx-Allee 45, Friedrichshain, details, 5.11 – 23.12.22

‘Paul van Ostaijen, Boem!’

Paul van Ostaijen (1896-1928) was one of the most important Flemish artists and poets working within Dadaism and Surrealism. Following World War I, van Ostaijen lived in exile in Berlin for three years. The Museum Ephraim-Palais’s new exhibition focuses on the work he produced over this period, during which he took part in artistic and revolutionary events happening in the city. In addition to original manuscripts and presentations of his works, pieces by his contemporaries such as Käthe Kollwitz and Lyonel Feininger, as well as more modern current compositions are presented.

• Museum Ephraim-Palais, Poststraße 16, Berliner Innenstadt, details, 13.10 – 30.12.22

‘Inventing Colour’

“The colour has me. I don’t need to rush for it. It has me forever…I and the colour are one”, wrote the painter Paul Klee 1914 in his diary. Colour and light are the unifying elements of the group exhibition ‘Inventing Colour’, which is currently on show at Kunsthaus ARTES Berlin. The show looks at the diverse approaches taken by different artists in their dealings with form, contrast and intensity. With works by Selçuk Dizlek, Marie Athenstaedt, Andy Warhol, Isa Dahl, Rhea Standke, Ruri Matsumoto, Gerhard Richter, Fintan Whelan, Imi Knoebel, Marion Eichmann, Christian Awe, among others.

• Kunsthaus ARTES Berlin, Auguststraße 19, Mitte, details, 12.11.22 – 21.01.23

‘Magyar Modern: Hungarian Art in Berlin 1910-1933’

This new exhibition at the Berlinische Galerie breaks new ground in its exploration of the artistic links between Berlin and Hungarian Modernism. After Hungary’s failed revolution of 1919, Weimar Republic-Berlin became an important locale for exiled creatives and intellectuals. Making up one of the largest exile communities in Berlin at the time, an unmistakable impact was made on the avant garde culture of this era. Featuring works by Lászlo Móholy-Nagy and Oskar Kaufman, ‘Magyar Modern’ follows the the life of Hungarian Modernism in the German capital, leading up to its ultimate repression under the Nazi Party.

• Berlinische Galerie, Alte Jakobstraße 124-128, Kreuzberg, details, 4.11.22 – 6.2.23

Ruth Wolf-Rehfeldt, ‘Like a Spider in a Web’ (Hannah Hӧch Prize 2022)

At 90 years old, Ruth Wolf-Rehfeltd has received the 2022 Hannah Hӧch Prize for her extensive output of paintings, drawing and typewriter graphics, much of which was produced as subversive mail art under DDR rule. Alongside the award, the Kupferstichkabinett (Museum of Prints and Drawings) is holding a major retrospective of the artist’s work. ‘Like a Spider in a Web’ features a number of Wolf-Rehfeltd’s Typewritings – collages of typewritten text which form a kind of visual poetry. During the DDR era, the artist would secretly mail these small-scale works to other artists both inside and outside of East German control.

• Kupferstichkabinett, Gemäldegalerie, Matthäikirchplatz, Tiergarden details, 2.11.22 – 5.2.23

Anne Schönharting, ‘Habitat’

At Haus am Kleistpark, Anne Schönharting’s solo exhibition ‘Habitat’ showcases portraits of Charlottenburg’s upper-class artists and intellectuals inside their apartments. Reminiscent of paintings by old masters or dramatic film stills, Schönharting’s photographs act as staged glimpses into a fascinating side of Berlin life.

• Haus am Kleistpark, Grunewaldstraße 6-7, Charlottenburg, details, 14.10 – 11.12.22

Thomas Rentmeister

Under the Schwartze Villa Gallery’s theme ‘Field Studies of the Everyday’, artist Thomas Rentmeister has created a series of sculptural works using everything from food to hygiene products and old appliances. Often resembling human forms, the artist’s sculptures bring together the grotesque and the beautiful with a kind of humorous social criticism. Rentmeister’s exhibition at the Schwartz creates a sense of interest and even beauty to the mundane materials of our everyday lives.

• Schwartze Villa, Grunewaldstraße 55, Steglitz, details, 7.10.22 – 5.2.23

‘Provenance Research’

The ‘provenance’ of a work of art refers to that object’s unique history – the hands it passed through, its movement and its controversies. This new exhibition at the Akademie der Künste dives into the history of the museum’s own collection. Provenance researchers from the AdK have traced the complex and often dark histories of many of its paintings and archival materials, from the Nazi period through the GDR years. Amongst others, ‘Provenance Research’ examines the work of painters Max Lieberman and Carl Blechen, as well as manuscripts by Walter Benjamin.

• Akademie der Künste, Pariser Platz 4, Mitte, details, 29.10.22 – 22.01.23

Dominique Gonzales-Foerster, ‘Panoramism and the Abstract Sector’

The highlight of French artist Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster’s new solo show at the Esther Schipper Gallery is a striking 30-metre-long semi-circular panorama. A bold collage of people, cityscapes and abstract motifs, Gonzalez-Foerster reimagines the panorama: from stuffy 19th-century museum piece to a medium that transcends contemporary image culture.

• Esther Schipper Gallery, Potsdamer Str. 81e, Tiergarten, details, 28.10.22 – 23.12.23

‘Surrealism and Magic: Enchanted Modernity’

Now reopened following the most recent climate change demonstration that took place there, you can now visit the new exhibition at Potsdam’s Museum Barberini. ‘Surrealism and Magic: Enchanted Modernity’ is the first large-scale loan exhibition focussing exclusively on the Surrealists’ interest in magic and myth. The show is also one of the first to include many works by historically underrated female Surrealists, such as Leonora Carrington and Dorothea Tanning.

• Museum Barberini, Humboldtstr. 5 – 6, Potsdam, details, 22.10.22 – 29.01.23

‘Adventure on the Nile: Prussia and Egyptology, 1842-45’

This exhibition revisits the famous 19th-century Prussian expedition along the Nile. Harkening back to the beginnings of Egyptology as a field of study, ‘Adventure on the Nile’ certainly doesn’t attempt to present itself as any kind of post-colonial critique. The exhibition seems to steer clear of topical discussions around looted artefacts and reappropriation, but nevertheless presents a broad selection of pieces and can certainly still be enjoyed as a historical throwback.

• Neues Museum, Bodestr. Mitte, details, 15.10.22 – 03.07.23

‘Chains of Interest’

There seems to be a trend of self-exploration across Berlin’s cultural institutions. Like the Akademie der Künste’s ‘Provenance Research’, the IFA Gallery’s new group exhibition concerns itself with the intricacies of its own collection. ‘Chains of Interest’ is the culmination of research carried out for the last year by artists Isaac Chong Wai, Lizza May David, Wilhelm Klot-zek, Ofri Lapid, Adrien Missika and Gitte Villesen.

• ifa-Galerie, Linienstr. 139 – 140, Mitte, details, 30.09.22 – 22.01.23

Paetrick Schmidt, ‘Painted Songs’

The title says it all – artist Paetrick Schmidt paints record covers for music he likes to listen to. Schmidt’s work tries to reestablish a tangible and visual connection to music. In a culture of instant music-streaming gratification, Schmidt misses a “deeper connection to the piece of music that comes from haptic contact with the materially tangible sound carrier”.

• MUSCHKEBART food & coffee, Blockdammweg 1, Rummelsburg, details, 21.10 – 02.12.22

Prize of the President of the UdK

Since 1997, the ‘Preis des Präsidenten der UdK’ has been awarded to three outstanding Master’s students of the Universität der Künste Berlin. This year’s winners are the bold and exciting new artists Viktor Petrov, Aline Schwörer and Kallirroi Ioannidou, who will present works in a group exhibition at the Burster Gallery.

• Galerie Burster Berlin, Ludwigkirchstraße 11, Charlottenburg, details, 20.10 – 03.12.22.

Thilo Heinzmann, ‘playing slowies’

In this solo exhibition at neugerriemschneider gallery, artist Thilo Heinzmann exhibits a series of his characteristically ephemeral paintings. The use of colour in Heinzmann’s works is sparse and unpredictable. The Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson once dedicated a string quartet in twelve delicate movements to Heinzmann’s work, which perhaps says more about these paintings than words can.

• neugerriemschneider, Christinenstraße 18-19, Prenzlauerberg, details, 17.09.22 – 18.03.23

Michel Majerus, ‘Early Works’

Twenty years after the artist’s tragic death in a plane crash, aged just 35, KW pays tribute to the Luxembourgian’s early works, charting the evolution of this genuinely innovative young painter. With an extraordinary ability to rework the visual culture of his time, Majerus spilled advertising slogans, computer game graphics, logos, Pixar characters and graffiti across his sprawling canvases. This new collection of early works, many of which are on public display for the first time, covers his output between 1990 and 1996.

• KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Auguststraße 69, Mitte, details, 22.10.2022 – 15.01.2023

‘Ceremony (Burial of an Undead World)’

Alongside four guest curators, Anselm Franke of Haus der Kulturen der Welt has created an ambitious programme for the centre’s last major exhibition of the year. With contributions from more than 50 artists, Ceremony aims to explore how modernism has brought us to the critical point at which the world now seems to find itself. With contributing works from Mariana Castillo Deball, Stan Douglas, Rosemarie Trockel, Tabita Rezaire, Jane Jin Kaisen, and (posthumously) Albrecht Dürer, to name just a few.

• Haus der Kulturen der Welt John-Foster-Dulles-Allee 10, Tiergarten, details, 23.10.–30.12.2022

‘Offener Blick’

With the exhibition Offener Blick – Der Zukunft entgegen (Open View – Towards the Future), 14 refugees from different backgrounds reflect on their lives since arriving in Berlin. Under the direction of photographer Peter Fischer-Piel, they illuminate and consider their past and present lives through an exhibition of photographs and texts.

• Haus am Kleistpark Grunewaldstr. 6–7, Schöneberg, details, 21.10 – 11.12.2022

Opening exhibitions at DAS MINSK Kunsthaus, Potsdam

Located at the former terrace restaurant of Brauhausberg, right next to Potsdam’s central station, the recently opened DAS MINSK Kunsthaus is currently hosting its two inaugural exhibitions with a juxtaposition of DDR modernism and contemporary art. With his depictions of German allotment gardens, Wolgang Mattheuer’s paintings are exhibited boldly alongside works from Canadian photographer Stan Douglas, who documented Potsdam’s lesser-known gardens after German reunification.

• DAS MINSK Max-Planck-Str. 17, Potsdam, details, 24.09.2022 – 15.01.2023

‘How To Brücke-Museum: A Look Behind the Scenes’

Director Lisa Marei Schmidt and her team in Dahlem are celebrating 55 years of the Brücke Museum with a very special exhibition. “How To Brücke-Museum: A Look Behind the Scenes” aims to make the work of the museum more approachable. Using works from the collection as examples, it reflects on the different roles of the museum; from acquisition to digitisation and outreach. At the exhibition opening, staff members will answer questions about their field of work, followed by a screening from Berlin-based artist Christian Jankowski.

• Brücke-Museum, Bussardsteig 9, Dahlem, details, until 29.01.23

‘Paint it All’

Only recently, Künstlerhaus Bethanien hosted a somewhat indecisive overview of painting in Germany. Now, the Berlinische Galerie is covering the genre more precisely, and reviewing painting in Berlin – with recent examples by Christine Streuli, Eberhard Havekost and Tatjana Doll, among others. Some works will be exhibited for the first time.

• Berlinische Galerie, Alte Jakobstraße 124-128, Kreuzberg, details, until 06.02.23

‘Quantity and Quality’

In a special exhibition, the team of the Altes Museum pay tribute to the mass-produced clay figurines of ancient Greece. Once believed to be of little cultural or historical value due to their small size and the cheap material used to make them, the exhibition revisits these works as important relics of the ancient world.

• Altes Museum, Bodestraße 1-3, Mitte, details, until 02.07.23

‘Escribir todos sus nombres’

The dictator Franco ruled Spain until 1975, but already more than a decade earlier female artists were critically addressing their everyday lives and the political situation of their country. Lola Hinojosa of Madrid’s Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía has curated this new exhibition at the Palais Populaire, which draws on a selection of paintings, collages, macramé works and photographs spanning 60 years of Spanish history.

• PalaisPopulaire, Unter den Linden 5, Mitte, details, until 27.02.23

‘State of emergency: Polish photography today’

Finally, Berlin curators and institutions have turned their attention to Eastern Europe. Exhibitions over the past two years bear witness to this, even if the primary impetus is political tension and escalation. A salient example is the group show State of Emergency. Polish Photo Art Today at the Center for Contemporary Art (ZAK). Curators Jens Pepper and Grazyna Siedlecka, who are well acquainted with the scene there, selected works from 26 photographers (well, 25 individuals and one married couple) to represent a generation of photographers who grew up and started their careers in Poland after 1989, giving a comprehensive look at contemporary life in the post-Soviet country.

• ZAK – Centre for Contemporary Art Zitadelle, Am Juliusturm 64, Spandau, details, until 01.01.23

Lucia Moholy: ‘The Image of Modernity’

Lucia Moholy’s photos were so good that Walter Gropius refused to return the negatives to her, instead passing them off as his own. Objectively and precisely composed, they shaped the image of Bauhaus and its buildings to this day. The wife of László Moholy-Nagy received neither the payment nor the recognition she deserved for her efforts and even had to fight for some of her negatives from Gropius in court. Born in 1894, Moholy had an eventful life between artistic awakenings in Berlin and Dessau, fleeing the Nazis to London before settling in Zollikon, Switzerland, where she died in 1989. The exhibition ‘Lucia Moholy: The Image of Modernism’ showcases around 100 photos and selected objects from her time in Berlin to demonstrate that she not only played an essential part in her husband’s creative cosmos, but was also an independent artist in her own right.

• Bröhan Museum Schloßstr.1a, Charlottenburg, details, until 22.1.23

Leila Hekmat

The first exhibition at Haus am Waldsee under the direction of Anna Gritz is presented by the US-born, Berlin-based artist Leila Hekmat. Hekmat’s speciality is costumes that look like they were designed by Madonna and Hannah Höch, and in which Hekmat performs plays for stage and camera. She has transformed the house into a humorous sanatorium for women, a theatrical installation full of patients whose way of thinking and lifestyle go beyond all social expectations.

• Haus am Waldsee Argentinische Allee 30, Zehlendorf, details, until 8.1.23

Walter Price

Walter Price went to art school on the taxpayer’s dime; after serving in the US military he made use of the GI bill to get an education – and it was worth every penny. Walter Price paints small pictures that are nonetheless impressive, regardless of which colour he is currently into. In 2021, white was the preferred hue for his UK shows, but now red dominates his works at the Barbara Wien Gallery. Price sometimes merges other mediums like fabrics and photographs into his work. This time it’s red coat hooks and coffee cups. In any case, it’s worth seeing. 

• Barbara Wien Schönberger Ufer 65, details, until 21.1.23.

Three exhibitions at once

It is now abundantly clear how much care the craftspeople have put into Haus Kunst Mitte. Over three floors you can now see three exhibitions, but it’s worth going just to see the building itself. ‘Intercom’ (until October 8) presents sound installations by female artists, including Ann Noel and Steffi Weismann. ‘Troubled Nature’, featuring works from the association Berliner Künstlerinnen 1867 tries to illustrate our current ecological uneasiness. And ‘Bodies in Trouble’ by artists from London and Berlin such as Roxana Halls (see above), proves that British painting is still relevant to the continent.

• Haus Kunst Mitte Heidestr. 54, Tiergarten, details, until 15.1.23.

Cold Light

The carbon-neutral power plant E-WERK, featuring the work of Lindsay Seers, Keith Sargent and Performance Electrics, presents the ambitious Cold Light VR project and installation to lure people out to the industrial environs of Luckenwalde. Based on the works of Nikola Tesla, the Serbian-American, the centerpiece of the exhibition is a large-scale reconstruction of the designer’s vision for universal power. His failed attempts to draw electricity directly from the air without wires or cables has been impressively reconstructed in the main hall of the building. Around it, VR stations have been created, inspired by the mysterious polyhedron from Dürer’s MelencoliaI. 

• E-WERK Luckenwalde, Rudolf-Breitscheid-Straße 73, Luckenwalde, details, until 11.12.22.

Humboldt Forum, Part II

The first partial opening of the Humboldt Forum in 2021 was accompanied by protests. Activist groups demanded the return of art stolen in colonial times. Since then some restitutions have been made (such as that of the Benin Bronzes) but the majority has stayed put. How the curators deal with these criticisms will make for a must-see event this weekend when part II opens.

• Humboldt Forum Schloßplatz 1, Mitte, details, until decolonisation is complete.

Mona Hatoum

The third chapter of Mona Hatoum’s retrospective opens on September 18. Parts one and two are already on display at the Georg Kolbe Museum and the Neues Berliner Kunstverein respectively. A large-scale installation is now to follow in the Kindl Centre that is intended to symbolise the precarious state of our world. Check out More highlights of Art Week Berlin 2022 here.

• Kindl-Zentrum, Am Sudhaus 3, Neukölln, details, until 14.05.23.

Maria Lassnig

Maria Lassnig’s work  transforms pain, desire, smells and digestion into colourful canvases filled with idiosyncratic, distorted bodies. Her work can now be seen in the municipal Gutshaus Steglitz, alongside works from the Munich Klewan Collection. Maria Lassnig (1919-2014), who lived in Berlin for a year, is an artist who only achieved world wide renown in her old age. Never give up!

• Gutshaus Steglitz, Schloßstr. 48, Steglitz, details, until 26.02.23.

Donatello

Major museums have joined forces to pay tribute to Donatello (1386–1466). Together with the Bargello National Museum in Florence and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, the Gemäldegalerie celebrates the Florentine sculptor as the “inventor of the Renaissance”. Sculptures and reliefs by Donatello, which he also made of terracotta and bronze, can be seen, next to paintings by his contemporaries.

• Gemäldegalerie Matthäikirchplatz, Tiergarten, details, until 08.01.23

Queering the Crip, Cripping the Queer

The Schwules Museum (Gay Museum) is once again doing pioneering work. Their new show addresses historical overlaps between queerness and disability. The cultural-historical exhibition also includes works by contemporary artists such as Rita Mazza and Riva Lehrer (pictured).

• Schwules Museum Lützowstr. 73, Tiergarten, details, until 30.01.23

Sascha Wiederhold

His ‘Bogenschützen’ (1928) has been in the permanent exhibition of the Neue Nationalgalerie since 2021, and his life’s work is now being rediscovered: Sascha Wiederhold (1904-1962) painted constructivist, futuristic, colourfully Orphistic-Cubist paintings such as ‘Sailboats’ in the harbour (above). The Neue Nationalgalerie is showing around 50 works by Wiederhold, who became a bookseller under the Nazi dictatorship, when art became too risky.

• Neue Nationalgalerie Potsdamer Str. 50, Tiergarten, details, until 08.01.23.

Mila Teshaieva

The Museum Europäischer Kulturen is  presenting the war diary of the Ukrainian photographer Mila Teshaieva in the exhibition “Splinters of Life”. From the beginning of March to the end of April, i.e. shortly after the military escalation, the native Ukrainian published her impressions in photographs and personal texts on the website dekoder. From this work, 18 large-format examples can now be seen in a chronologically sorted tour, showing everyday life in times of terror. There are no proud soldiers in uniform, no explosions or circling warplanes. Her pictures illuminate civilians in their new everyday life between destruction and reconstruction.

• Museum Europäischer Kulturen, Arnimallee 25, Dahlem, details, until 15.01.23

All Hands On: Flechten

Finally, the Museum of European Cultures (MEK) strikes again with a major exhibition. “All Hands On: Weaving” presents masterpieces of art, craft and design, anonymous pieces made of straw and bark as well as the new work “The Woven Garden” (photo.) by Olaf Holzapfel, a participant in Documenta five years ago. A welcome occasion for a subway ride to Dahlem: which is also worth a trip for beer gardens, bookstores at the university, parks and the Domäne Dahlem agricultural museum a short distance from the MEK. Perfect for a long weekend.

• Museum Europäischer Kulturen Arnimallee 25, Dahlem, details, until 26.05.24.

Old building, new content: the Neue Nationalgalerie

The freshly done-up Neue Nationalgalerie is presenting works from its collection dating from 1900 to 1945 under the title “The Art of Society”. These are arranged, not according to art styles, but to social and political themes. The exhibition doesn’t just consist of the museum’s combined inventory from East and West Berlin, but also features works borrowed from artists, such as Auguste Herbin’s glowing portrait of the writer and anarchist Erich Mühsam. The new collection is flanked by a posthumous presentation of works from the sculptor Alexander Calder and by a solo exhibition by the Berlin artist Rosa Barba on the architecture of Mies van der Rohe.

• Neue Nationalgalerie Potsdamer Str. 50, Tiergarten, details.