Exhibitions

Berlin’s art scene has changed more radically than almost any other. This new presentation of the collection at the Hamburger Bahnhof shows how art conquered and transformed the city after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, turning it from a walled-off frontline city into a global metropolis. As always, completely different artistic, political, and migrant paths intersect in Berlin. The exhibition documents the myth of Berlin, with works by more than 50 artists. These include paintings, drawings, sculptures, photographs, and video installations. Featured artists include Mona Hatoum, Henrike Naumann, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Katharina Sieverding, Avery Singer, Slavs and Tatars, Thomas Struth, Sung Tieu, Danh Vo, and many more.

Ausstellungsansicht „Tausendmal Berlin. Die Sammlung Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart“: Michel Majerus, b.o., 2000; Yarema Malashchuk & Roman Khimei, Dedicated to the Youth of the World II, 2019 (von links)
© Courtesy die Künstler*innen / Foto: Jacopo La Forgia

The Berlin art scene of the 1980s is back. In the summer of 2025, the Berlinische Galerie presented a retrospective of Käthe Kruse, who was a member of the artist group and band 'Die Tödliche Doris'. The Weserburg in Bremen is set to become the first museum to present a comprehensive retrospective of the entire group. Founded in the punk movement by Wolfgang Müller and Nikolaus Utermöhlen, who were both still studying at the Berlin University of the Arts at the time, the group combined strategies from Warhol's Factory with influences from Fluxus, punk, wave, concept art, and anarchic and post-structuralist thinking. Active between 1980 and 1987, the group's membership was in constant flux, and it combined strategies from Warhol's Factory with influences from Fluxus, punk, wave, concept art, and anarchic and post-structuralist thinking. 'Doris' was not a star or a solo artist, but rather an amoeba-like network: an avant-garde meme that produced music, noise, light, strip shows, performances, films, books, gossip, furniture, paintings, object art, vinyl records, fashion, and radio plays — even an application for a seat in the Berlin Senate. The Bremen exhibition shows how groundbreaking this artistic work was, and explains why the group still has such a legendary reputation today.

Die Tödliche Doris auf dem Festival der Genialen Dilletanten, West-Berlin, 1981

When Ise Frank married the renowned Bauhaus architect Walter Gropius in 1923, Wassily Kandinsky and Paul Klee acted as their witnesses. For Gropius's sake, she gave up her own career and entered the service of the Bauhaus as a secretary, editor and organiser, as well as an 'equal partner'. The Bauhaus ideal became her 'second self', as she later put it. She had a decisive influence on her husband's work, wrote and took photographs, and emigrated with him to the USA. Yet, to most people, she remains 'Mrs Bauhaus'.

Her photographs are now on display in a major exhibition demonstrating just how bold and avant-garde Bauhaus women's photography was and showcasing their pioneering spirit. With over 300 photographs from the Bauhaus Archive's collection, this is the first exhibition to comprehensively document the significance of these artists and their work. The spectrum ranges from representational portraits and architectural photography to abstract, experimental photography. Prominent figures such as Marianne Brandt are represented alongside many lesser-known female photographers whose works have become iconic.

Based in Berlin, Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset have been working together since the mid-1990s, establishing themselves as two of the most influential queer artists of our time. In the broadest sense, they are sculptors, but they also work with installation, performance, and architecture. Through their art and interventions, they repeatedly challenge the status quo and address the historical and political context of places and institutions, often examining these critically with humour. They are doing just that at the Städel with 'Still Life with Vegetables'.

Visitors will encounter sculptures and installations by Elmgreen & Dragset in unexpected places that interact with the architecture and the Städel Museum’s collection, which spans over 700 years. The conventions of viewing, collecting and representing art are thoroughly shaken up in the process, drawing attention to details that are often overlooked. Embarking on a treasure hunt, visitors will find two large installations in the Contemporary Art Collection at the heart of the exhibition, which unfolds throughout the entire building — including the neighbouring Liebieghaus Sculpture Collection — featuring sculptures and interventions by the artists.

Foto: Studio Elmgreen & Dragset
© VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2025

In a time when selfishness and the survival of the fittest are becoming more prevalent, the Kunsthalle Bielefeld is turning the tables. Here, the focus is on sharing. The exhibition, created in collaboration with the Kunsthalle’s collection and the KiCo Collection, asks: What happens when we truly share ideas, spaces, and responsibility?

This concept aligns with the KiCo Collection, founded in 2009 by Doris Keller-Riemer and Hans-Gerd Riemer. They did not simply aim to establish a private collection; they also aimed to continuously develop it through collaboration with public museums and plan acquisitions within this context. Previously, partner museums were the Kunstmuseum Bonn and the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus; now, the Kunsthalle Bielefeld is the partner museum. Our strength in numbers is also evident in the impressive list of artists, including Georg Baselitz, Thomas Bayrle, Monica Bonvicini, Thomas Demand, Nicole Eisenman, Maria Lassnig, Charlotte Posenenske, Gerhard Richter, and Wolfgang Tillmans, among others.

Thomas Demand, Zaun, 2014, Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus und Kunstbau München, Sammlung KiCo © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2026

'The Island', Hito Steyerl's site-specific project for the Osservatorio in Milan's Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, is a complex film installation. It intertwines different narratives, all of which are associated with the motif of flooding. The film addresses urgent issues such as current authoritarian tendencies, the use of AI, the climate crisis and political pressure on science. Shot on the Dalmatian island of Korčula, the 26-minute film is full of animations and forms the centrepiece of the exhibition, which was created especially for Milan. German actor Marc Waschke, a frequent collaborator of Steyerl's, plays a tragicomic superhero who must save the world in a Flash Gordon costume wielding a Star Wars lightsaber. The film covers topics such as archaeology, quantum physics, and fascism. “And all this on a small island in Dalmatia on the Adriatic Sea. All these elements collide in this installation, which I hope will delight children too,” says Steyerl. Different time zones also collide: a medially confused, capitalistically distorted, and technologically disruptive “fake time” and “deep time”—the time of the hidden geological space of experience, an underwater time that lies outside the artificially created spectrum of humans.

The Island” by Hito Steyerl, Osservatorio Fondazione Prada, Milan. Photo: Andrea Rossetti, Courtesy Fondazione Prada

Curated by Nancy Spector, the exhibition ‘Helter Skelter’ places the works of two major American artists, Arthur Jafa (b. 1960) and Richard Prince (b. 1949), in an artistic and conceptual dialogue. Although born a decade apart, they both exhibit a certain ruthlessness in their appropriation and manipulation of images. Their sources range from films and pulp fiction to YouTube videos, science fiction stories, album covers, rock ’n’ roll posters, first editions of Beat literature, newsreels, celebrity memorabilia, and social media posts.

Both artists engage intensely with American pop culture, exposing its abysses and deceptions while simultaneously drawing on many of its myths and perversions. Jafa’s film works and installations reflect his identity as an African American, whilst also aiming to revitalise Black cinema and art. Prince’s works oscillate between critiquing white masculinity and exploring the darker aspects of the American psyche. The exhibition presents over fifty pieces, including photographs, videos, installations, sculptures and paintings. In addition, new works by both artists and a jointly conceived zine are on display.

Arthur Jafa, Mickey Mouse was a Scorpio, 2017 (detail). Private collection © Arthur Jafa / Midnight Robber © Photo: Ian Watts.TV. Richard Prince, Graduation, 2018. Collection of Larry Gagosian © Richard Prince

She is one of the greatest icons of the 20th century. Frida Kahlo. Madonna and the whole world adore her. This exhibition answers everything you ever wanted to know and never deared to ask about Frida Kahlo. Frida: The Making of an Icon traces Kahlo’s extraordinary rise from relatively unknown painter to global cultural phenomenon. It explores how her life and work influenced subsequent generations, inspiring styles and movements. The more than 30 works by Kahlo on display include rarely seen self-portraits, photographs, and personal belongings. The exhibition also presents Kahlo’s works in dialogue with those of modern and contemporary female artists from around the world who have drawn inspiration from her. Alongside some of her most famous self-portraits are photographs, archive material, and Kahlo’s Tehuana dresses and precious treasures from her personal collection. A blockbuster experience is guaranteed.

Frida Kahlo,Untitled [Self-portrait with thorn necklace and hummingbird]1940. Nickolas Muray Collection of Mexican Art

Harmony Korine was a legend from the very beginning. At just 19 years old, he wrote the screenplay for Larry Clark’s 'Kids' (1995), a raw and magnificent film about skateboarding and youth culture in 1990s New York, covering themes such as drugs, sex, AIDS and depression. Korine knew what he was writing about. The underage actors, including Chloë Sevigny, were non-professionals and authentic 'kids' who were cast on the street. The film caused a scandal, partly due to its explicit scenes, as did Korine's directorial debut, Gummo (1997).

He went on to make further films, including Mister Lonely (2007), Spring Breakers (2012) and The Beach Bum (2019). He has also directed music videos for artists including Rihanna, Sonic Youth and Cat Power. 'Perfect Nonsense' is the first major museum exhibition in the US dedicated to Korine's and multifaceted body of work. Tracking his entire career, the exhibition brings together over 50 works, including paintings, photographs, collages, zines and drawings. It situates his work within a broad continuum of visual production that blurs the boundaries between cinema, contemporary art, and pop culture.

Harmony Korine, Shirley’s Temple, 2016.

Craig Robins Collection.

Robert Gordy (1933–1986) was a Louisiana native and a unique phenomenon in American painting, something of a maverick. His graphically elegant and often ornamental paintings draw on Art Deco and Surrealism, while also foreshadowing postmodern painting. They were also frequently associated with the so-called 'Pattern and Decoration Movement' of the 1970s. This movement comprised female artists and a few male artists who had previously been active in the abstract art movements of the 1960s. This movement was a reaction against the Western, male-dominated Modernist and post-war Modernist canon, which had marginalised non-Western and feminine forms of art and craft. Many of the female artists were committed feminists who sought to revive interest in forms, patterns and decorations that had been considered 'inferior' or trivial.

However, Gordy insisted on independence, saying he preferred to work 'outside the mainstream'. During the 1970s and 1980s, he was renowned for his masterful compositions and sophisticated use of space, line and colour. He participated in the Whitney Biennial and other significant exhibitions, and New York's PS1 dedicated a solo exhibition to him. He is best known today for his prints and late monotypes, but worked with a variety of media throughout his career.
This exhibition, the first comprehensive presentation of the artist’s work at the New Orleans Museum of Art in over four decades, features a selection of Gordy’s work from the 1950s until his untimely death from AIDS in 1986.

Robert Gordy, Rimbaud’s Dream #2, 1971
New Orleans Museum of Art

Born in Brazil in 1938 to Japanese parents, Kenzi Shiokava moved to Los Angeles in 1964 when the military coup began. For 50 years, his sculptural practice focused on reusing and transforming discarded materials. His studio, a former warehouse in Compton that was a work of art in itself, was overflowing with found objects and materials he had collected from secondhand shops, the street, and the beach. These included telephone poles, driftwood, and plastic figurines, which he transformed into wooden totems and assemblages. Shiokava’s pared-down works have a minimalist, meditative quality, bringing to the forefront what he described as the “inner movement” he found in everyday objects.

The exhibition at the MCA is his first institutional solo exhibition and features around 50 sculptures from the 1970s to the 2010s. It centers on abstract totems, meticulously carved from wood, and enigmatic box installations that highlight the transcultural nature of Shiokava’s work, in which influences from Candomblé, Catholicism, and Zen Buddhism converge.

Installation view,Made in L.A. 2016: a, the, though, only, June 12–August 28, 2016, HammerMuseum, Los Angeles. Photo: Brian Forres

Ragnar Kjartansson, an Icelandic performance artist and painter, comes from a family of artists, writers, theater professionals, and performers. His perfectly staged video works resemble mini dramas or ballads about life. Almost always, there is music and singing about existential themes such as love, failure, and separation, with a touch of humor and tears. In 2013, for A Lot of Sorrow, he had the band The National play their hit "Sorrow" for six hours in a marathon performance outside New York's PS1.

Kjartansson’s films draw on a wide range of stylistic influences, from choreographed music videos and live music performances to 1970s American video art and stage traditions such as opera and ballet. Kjartansson repeatedly takes on the leading role himself, portraying a singer-songwriter, a Rococo dandy, a rock ’n’ roller, or a troubadour, as in his latest work, Sunday Without Love (2025). The setting is reminiscent of Georges Seurat’s Neo-Impressionist painting, "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte" (1884–1886); the performers wear traditional peasant costumes. In it, Kjartansson sings his own version of "Ohne Liebe Leben Lernen" ("Learning to Live Without Love"), a 1996 classic by Hamburg punk idol Rocko Schamoni. In the video "Me and My Mother," he asks his mother, actress Guðrún Ásmundsdóttir, to repeatedly spit in his face. She carries out this task as one would expect from a mother who firmly believes in her child’s artistic vision. With eight video installations, the exhibition promises to be an emotional roller coaster.

Ragnar Kjartansson, Sunday without Love, 2025
Single Channel Video, Sound
Courtesy of the artist, i8 Gallery Reykjavik and Luring Augustine, New York