2025 HIGHLIGHT EXHIBITIONS IN DUSSELDORF
At the same time as Art Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf’s art institutions are also presenting a diverse program that accompanies the fair beyond the exhibition grounds. In the city’s museums and exhibition venues, international positions meet local perspectives, current discourses meet curatorial highlights. Anyone wishing to deepen their visit to the fair will find inspiring points of contact and new perspectives on contemporary art in the city’s institutions. This overview brings together selected exhibitions that make a visit to Düsseldorf during Art Düsseldorf worthwhile.
Marc Chagall, The Big Circus, 1970, Pencil and gouache, 68 x 101 cm, ALBERTINA, Wien, Sammlung Batliner, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2025
In cooperation with the ALBERTINA Vienna, over 120 works by Marc Chagall from all creative phases can be admired at the K20 of the Kunstsammlung NRW. His dreamlike pictorial worlds captivate with their bright colors and mysterious symbolism, which reflect his Jewish-Orthodox life experience. Chagall works with both everyday objects and the trauma of persecution in an experimental style that makes him a “child prodigy of modernism”.
K20 of the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen is open from Tuesday to Sunday, 11 am to 6 pm. For more details on visiting this remarkable showcase, please refer to the provided link.
Leila Hekmat, SYMPTOM RECITAL: Music For Wild Angels, 2023, Filmstill, Courtesy the Artist and Galerie Isabella Bortolozzi, Berlin © The artist & Philara Collection, Düsseldorf
From puppets and marionettes to shadow puppetry – the Philara collection offers the theater an artistic stage. Traditional puppetry is rethought in a humorous way, leaving room for rethinking on a private level – from wishes and dreams to public debates. The exhibition consists of works on loan from the Gil Bronner Collection and in cooperation with the Marionettentheater Düsseldorf. On display are artists such as Kara Walker, Emma Talbot and Wael Shawky.
The Philara Collection is open on Friday from 4pm to 8pm and on Saturday and Sunday from 2pm to 6pm. For more details on visiting this extraordinary showcase, please refer to the provided link.
Exhibition view Georges Adéagbo in KAI 10 | ARTHENA FOUNDATION, Courtesy the artist, ADAGP & Kulturforum Süd-Nord, Photo: Studio Kukulies
The exhibition Frozen Mirrors questions whether the representation of a frozen moment is a greater illusion than a realistic rendering of objects and examines how such illusions are reflected in contemporary art. Inspired by Umberto Eco’s idea of the photographic “mirror”, the exhibition shows how temporal and illusionistic processes interact in contemporary art. Photorealistic paintings, life-size replicas and staged still lifes raise the question of whether a real world still exists behind media projections and digital simulations.
KAI 10 is open Tuesday to Sunday from 11 am to 5 pm. For more details on experiencing this innovative exhibition, please refer to the provided link.
Judith Samen, Slicing bread, 1997, Chromogenic color print, 135 x 91 cm, Stiftung Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf, Photo: © Judith Samen
The Kunstpalast invites you to an exhibition that explores the diverse ideas of motherhood and the associated social expectations. Works of painting, sculpture, photography and other media demonstrate the mutability of images of motherhood, which are constantly being reinterpreted, contested and celebrated. A stimulating look at a topic that affects everyone, whether parents or not.
Kunstpalast is also presenting the first comprehensive solo exhibition of the Ethiopian artist Elias Sime (*1968) in a German-speaking country. Entitled “Echo የገደል ማሚቶ”, the exhibition offers an insight into Sime’s artistic development from the early 2000s to the present day. Sime uses materials such as wires and keyboard parts that he collects from the markets in Addis Ababa. These transformed objects reflect themes such as the global electronics market and the impact of technology on society.
The Kunstpalast is open Tuesday to Sunday from 11am to 6pm and Thursdays from 11am to 9pm. Discover more about visiting this exceptional exhibition here.
Birgitta Thaysen, Theodor-Heuss-Bridge, cantilevered walkway, Düsseldorf, 2022 © Birgitta Thaysen / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2025
And we’re just getting started – an exhibition that shows that tradition and new beginnings are not a contradiction in terms. The artists of the VdDK 1844 present around 250 works of painting, graphic art, sculpture, photography and media art – a snapshot of one of Germany’s oldest artists’ associations, which remains vibrant, united and innovative to this day. An insight into 181 years of history that does not get lost in nostalgia, but always begins anew.
The Kunsthalle Düsseldorf is open Tuesday to Sunday from 11 am to 6 pm. For further details on experiencing this groundbreaking exhibition, please visit the provided link.
Bracha Lichtenberg Ettinger, Eurydice n.61, 2017-2022, Oil on canvas, 30 x 30 cm, Courtesy the Artist, © BRACHA
The exhibition “Bracha Lichtenberg Ettinger” at the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen is the first German exhibition to offer a comprehensive overview of the work of the painter, psychoanalyst and peace activist, who addresses issues of memory, trauma and healing in her paintings and artist’s books. On display will be recent works as well as early works from the 1980s, which take up Bracha’s unique approach to image production and her examination of the question of the depictability of documents of the Holocaust.
The K21 of the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen is open from Tuesday to Sunday, 11 am to 6 pm. For more details regarding your experience at the exhibition, please refer to the provided link.
Wang Bing, Youth (Spring) / Qingchun (Chun), 2024, Filmstill. Courtesy der Künstler, © Icarus Films
Wang Bing makes the invisible visible. In his first solo exhibition, the Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen is showing the haunting work of the Chinese filmmaker, who sees film as a medium of non-forgetting.
The Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen Düsseldorf is open Tuesday to Sunday from 11 am to 6 pm. For further information on experiencing this significant exhibition, please visit the provided link.
Installationview Thomas Ruff in the new Malkastenforum, Photo Achim Kukulies, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2025 für Thomas Ruff
The first exhibition at the Malkastenforum celebrates Thomas Ruff with a spectacular homage to Düsseldorf! Experience iconic portraits from the 1980s and fascinating images of the city. Highlights include Ruff’s latest psychedelic works from the d.o.pe series as well as six previously unpublished “sketches” that reinterpret solarization in an exciting new way – an absolute must-see!
The Malkastenforum is open Tuesday from 5 to 9 pm and Thursday to Sunday from 11 am to 5 pm. For additional details regarding your visit to this extraordinary exhibition, please refer to the provided link.
Melanie Loureiro, Photo: Ivo Faber, Seven Dots of Plenty, 2024_25, 160 x 190 cm, Oil on canvas
In her impressive paintings, Melanie Loureiro unfolds a fascinating world of oversized plants and insects that literally cast a spell over the viewer. With an intense attention to detail, she brings the life of caterpillars, butterflies and spiders almost microscopically close. Her works focus on animal species threatened with extinction and the consequences for the ecosystem.
The KIT is open Tuesday to Sunday from 11 am to 6 pm. For further details on experiencing this thought-provoking exhibition, please refer to the provided link.
Mischa Kuball „ReferenzRäume“, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Detail of a photograph of Marek Kruszewski, 2021, VG Bild-Kunst Bonn 2025
The Bilker Bunker, once an air-raid shelter during the Second World War, is now pulsating with new life as a unique cultural space. Its raw concrete architecture meets contemporary design to create an atmosphere unlike any other. On view: Mischa Kuball’s stunning light installation “nine eight planets, one star, one world”. This immersive, site-specific work transforms the bunker into a shimmering cosmos of light and reflection. It makes the building’s layered past tangible – while sending a powerful message of unity, diversity and shared humanity. Step inside – and experience how light can illuminate history, space and thought.
Opening hours are Wednesday and Friday from 5 to 9 pm, Saturday from 2 to 9 pm and Sunday from 2 to 6 pm. For more details about exhibitions at the Bilker Bunker, please follow the link.
Lore Bert, „Circulum (JWvG)" on view at the Goethe Museum, Photo: City of Düsseldorf/Wilfried Meyer
In cooperation with KM_159, the Goethe-Museum presents the second part of the exhibition by renowned artist Lore Bert entitled “Construction and Poetry”. The focus is on three large-format paper objects made of traditionally handmade Japanese paper, in which Lore Bert devotes herself to Goethe’s poetry and his theory of color. Her work is characterized by an intensive examination of the humanities and natural sciences – a connection that can be experienced through the senses in her works.
Opening hours are Tuesday to Friday and Sunday from 11 am to 5 pm and Saturday from 1 pm to 5 pm. For more information about the Goethe Museum, click on the following link.
Studio of Günther Uecker, Hüttenstraße 104, Düsseldorf July 1965 © Maren Heyne, Courtesy ZERO foundation
The exhibition “In Friendship for Günther Uecker” at the ZERO foundation in Düsseldorf is dedicated to the important artist and co-founder of the ZERO movement. It shows works from private collections that make his artistic friendships and collaborations visible. The ZERO House, where Uecker himself had a studio in the early 1960s, provides the ideal setting for this retrospective of his work and his international network. Experience how the legacy of ZERO art continues to have an impact today – with works that focus on light, movement and space.
The ZERO foundation is always open on Sundays from 1 to 5 pm. On the occasion of Art Düsseldorf, the ZERO foundation will also open its doors from Thursday, April 10 to Sunday, April 13, 2025, from 1 to 5 pm. For additional details regarding your visit at Zero foundation, please refer to the provided link.
