Our Guide to Every Must-See Show at Gallery Weekend Berlin 2023
Words: Chris Erik Thomas.
There’s a bit of everything awaiting art lovers at this year’s Gallery Weekend Berlin. Now in its 19th edition, the city-wide event once again sprawls out like a treasure map across the German capital, promising a fresh batch of exciting positions and new discoveries. This year, the breadth of options is a testament to the cultural force of Berlin’s art scene; there are 55 galleries on the official list that will be showing works by new and established artists. Of course, Gallery Weekend Berlin also comes packed with a constellation of unofficial events hosted at gallery spaces, museums, and institutions around the city. Together, the official and off-site events offer a full slate of must-see exhibitions (and must-attend openings).
Art has formed the backbone of Berlin’s creative scene for decades — from the stark divisions of the Berlin Wall to the creative renaissance of the city’s reunification. Since 2005, Gallery Weekend Berlin has brought out the city’s art crowd and attracted visitors from around the world to celebrate the more than 5,000 artists and hundreds of galleries and museums that call Berlin home.
Before the city launches into its annual May Day pandemonium on Monday, this year’s iteration runs from Friday, 28 April, through Sunday, 30 April. With over 50 galleries on the official list, we’ve compiled the key exhibitions to check out this weekend — or over the next several weeks as the shows continue into spring and summer. Scroll through to see our highlights and we’ll see you in your best walking shoes as we crisscross the capital for another year of Gallery Weekend.
Paloma Proudfoot. "The three living and the three dead," 2022. Glazed ceramic, bolts. 220 x 438 x 3 cm. Courtesy the artist & Soy Capitán, Berlin. Photo: Roman März.
For her third solo show with Soy Capitán, British artist Paloma Proudfoot returns to Berlin for an otherworldly show, “The Three Living and The Three Dead.” The exhibition features a series of large-scale ceramic friezes that depict scenes of imagined interactions between the living and the dead. Rather than a single final moment, death is shown as a slow unraveling. Both the living and dead hold an equal presence in the work as they journey through scenes of dissection, decomposition, and re-growth.
“The Three Living and The Three Dead” by Paloma Proudfoot is on view from 28 April to 10 June. The gallery is located at Prinzessinnenstr. 29 10969 Berlin-Kreuzberg. The opening hours are Wednesday to Saturday, from 12 PM to 6 PM, or by appointment. Please see their website for special Gallery Weekend opening hours.
Image © Andrej Dúbravský. Courtesy DITTRICH & SCHLECHTRIEM, Berlin. Photo: Dorota Jedinakova.
Andrej Dubravsky has always sourced inspiration from his lush garden and studio in the countryside of southwest Slovakia. In a continuation of this inspiration, the artist’s fifth solo show at the gallery focuses on the “subimago” — a winged preadult life stage of the delicate mayfly. Touching on the unresolved tension between humanity and the natural world, “Anxiety of Subimago” will feature a new series of large-scale acrylic paintings.
“Anxiety of Subimago” by Andrej Dubravsky is on view from 28 April to 1 July. The gallery is located at Linienstrasse 23, 10178 Berlin, Germany. The opening hours are Monday to Saturday, from 11 AM to 6 PM. Please see their website for special Gallery Weekend opening hours.
Jason Martin. "Exile," 2023. Mixed media on aluminium. 245 (h) x 245 x 15 cm. Courtesy the artist and Buchmann Galerie Berlin. Photo: Dave Morgan.
British painter Jason Martin will present a collection of recent abstract pieces that showcase the movement and energy inherent in his oeuvre. As a performative act for the artist, his works seem to explode onto the canvas, with colors and forms swirling together. The exhibition, “New Titles,” will gravitate around two large-scale works: “Exile” and “The Whole Storm.”
“New Titles” by Jason Martin is on view from 28 April to 26 June. The gallery is located at Charlottenstraße 13, 10969 Berlin. The opening hours are Tuesday to Saturday, 11 AM to 6 PM. Please see their website for special Gallery Weekend opening hours.
Courtesy of the artist and Konrad Fischer Galerie. Photo: Stefan Hostettler.
Two exhibitions of sculptural and works on paper — with one by an artist shrouded in mystery — await art lovers at Konrad Fischer Galerie. The first, “Wilde Leute” by Düsseldorf-based artist Paloma Varga Weisz, takes inspiration from the medieval description of “wild people” and features a series of pieces made of bronze and wood, plus a selection of watercolor drawings on paper. Alongside that show, a series of sculptures and works on paper will be shown by the anonymous artist stanley brouwn, who was a key figure in the 1960s conceptualism movement.
“Wilde Leute” by Paloma Varga Weisz and “stanley brouwn” are on view from 28 April to 29 July. The gallery is located at Neue Grünstraße 12 10179 Berlin. The opening hours are Tuesday to Saturday, from 11 AM to 6 PM. Please see their website for special Gallery Weekend opening hours.
Aziz Hazara. "Coming Home," 2021-Ongoing. Archival print on paper, dimensions variable. Courtesy of the artist and Experimenter. 2023, Kolkata. Image: Sher Abbas Aliyar.
For his solo exhibition at PSM for this year’s Gallery Weekend, Aziz Hazara crafted an exhibition centered around an Aimee Philips poem from 1977: “In a festival held to celebrate words they did not allow the ‘truth.’ Because it was not wearing formal clothes.” Using a selection of photographs, videos, and audio installations, the show will tackle the complex sociopolitical power struggles of his native Afghanistan.
“No Dress code” by Aziz Hazara is on view from 28 April to 10 June. The gallery is located at Schöneberger Ufer 61, 10785 Berlin. The opening hours are Tuesday to Saturday, from 12 PM to 6 PM, or by appointment. Please see their website for special Gallery Weekend opening hours.
Louise Nevelson. "Untitled," 1980. Collage on painted wood. 208 x 128 x 15,5 cm. © Galerie Haas Zürich. Photo: Alessandro Zambianchi.
For a special joint exhibition in the rooms on Niebuhrstraße and in Kunst Lager Haas, the gallery will present works from Louise Nevelson and George Rickey. The two American artists have made a sizeable impact on the German art scene through their participation in documenta III and IV and, for Gallery Weekend, the selection of pieces will a number of sculptures. The show will also inaugurate a series of exhibitions and events on George Rickey that will take place in and around Berlin throughout 2023.
“Louise Nevelson & George Rickey” is on view from 28 April to 5 August. The gallery is located at Niebuhrstraße 5, 10629 Berlin. The opening hours are Monday to Friday, from 9 AM to 6 PM. Please see their website for special Gallery Weekend opening hours.
Sophie Reinhold. "Die Allegorie von Amor und Psyche," 2022. Oil on pigmented marble powder on jute. 138 x 110 cm. Photo: Matthias Kolb. Copyright: The Artist. Courtesy: The Artist and Galerie Nordenhake.
In the first solo exhibition of her work at the gallery, Berlin-born artist Sophie Reinhold will present a new series of paintings made specifically for the show. The works will be shown on surfaces prepared with bitumen, ground marble, and graphite powder, acting as a juxtaposition for a site-specific installation in the gallery space. Together, the pieces touch on mythology, simulation, and reality.
“Träum Weiter” by Sophie Reinhold is on view from 28 April to 1 July. The gallery is located on Lindenstrasse 34, 10969 Berlin. The opening hours are Tuesday to Saturday, 11 AM to 6 PM. Please see their website for special Gallery Weekend opening hours.
KRH Sonderborg. "Untitled," 1986. Acrylic on canvas. 162 x 228 cm. Courtesy Galerie Georg Nothelfer.
At both of Galerie Georg Nothelfer’s locations, art lovers will find two distinct exhibitions on view. In the space at Corneliusstraße, the solo show “copy paste” will present works by KRH Sonderborg on the occasion of his 100th birthday, showcasing why the artist was one of the most important representatives of the German Informel movement. On Sunday, 30 April, at 12 PM, there will be a special performance of the archiv SANDER I SCHAAL in the gallery. Meanwhile, the showroom at Grolmanstraße will play host to “The moment” by Britta Lumer. The exhibition will be the gallery’s first solo show of the German artist’s work and feature works on paper and a sculptural portrait.
“Copy paste” by KRH Sonderborg is on view from 28 April to 17 June, and “The moment” by Britta Lumer is on view from 22 April to 10 June. The gallery is located at Corneliusstrasse 3, 10787 Berlin, while the showroom is at Grolmanstraße 28, 10623 Berlin-Charlottenburg. The opening hours for both locations are Thursday and Friday, from 12 PM to 7 PM; Saturday, from 12 PM to 6 PM; and by arrangement. Please see their website for special Gallery Weekend opening hours.
Renaud Regnery. "Favourite Place," 2022. Oil and wallpaper on canvas. 130 x 90 cm. Courtesy Klemm’s Berlin.
For the fifth solo exhibition of artist Renaud Regnery at Klemm’s, a selection of large-scale paintings will present a new insight into the artist’s oeuvre. A mix of sketch-like motifs, pop references, tech industry image materials, and more collide to produce a visually gripping showcase of his talent.
“What Power Art Thou?” by Renaud Regnery is on view from 28 April to 10 June. The gallery is located at Prinzessinnenstraße 29, 10969 Berlin. The opening hours are Tuesday to Saturday, 11 AM to 6 PM. Please see their website for special Gallery Weekend opening hours.
Thomas Müller. "Untitled," 2023. Ink on paper. 29,7 x 21 cm. Copyright of the artist. Courtesy Galerie Friese, Berlin. Photo: Frank Kleinbach, Stuttgart.
Art lovers will find two strong exhibitions at Galerie Friese this year. First, the gallery will show its third solo exhibition of works by Thomas Müller with “Drawings.” The show will feature both large-format and A4-sized abstract works created with a mix of materials, including pencil, chalk, ballpoint pen, ink, acrylic, oil, and shellac. Meanwhile, “Holy Shit — I Hear Voices” by German artist Achim Duchow will present 18 large-format paintings created between 1980 and 1992 in commemoration of the publication of the artist’s catalog raisonné.
“Drawings” by Thomas Muller and “Holy Shit — I Hear Voices” by Achim Duchow are on view from 28 April to 17 June. The gallery is located at Meierottostrasse 1, 10719 Berlin. The opening hours are Monday to Saturday, from 11 AM to 6 PM. Please see their website for special Gallery Weekend opening hours.
Lucia Moholy. "Dr. Franz Roh," 1926, from "Bauhaus Portfolio I." Gelatin silver print. Published by Rudolf Kicken Galerie, Cologne 1985. © Rudolf Kicken Galerie, Cologne 1985. Courtesy Kicken Berlin.
For Gallery Weekend, Kicken will present part five of its ongoing “Sheroes of Photography” series, which began in 2021. Derived from the English neologism “Shero,” the series highlights outstanding achievements by female artists in photography. “Sheroes of Photography Part V” will feature works by such artists as Lotte Jacobi, Lucia Moholy, Edith Buch, Alice Lex-Nerlinger, Barbara Klemm, and Charlotte Rudolph, among others.
“Sheroes of Photography Part V” is on view from 28 April to 1 September. The gallery is located at Kaiserdamm 118, 14057 Berlin. The opening hours are Tuesday to Friday, 2 PM to 6 PM, or by appointment. Please see their website for special Gallery Weekend opening hours.
Elsa Rouy. "Pleasure of a silent image disturbed," 2023. Bleach, acrylic and charcoal on canvas. 170 x 185 cm. Courtesy the artist, EIGEN + ART Lab and Guts Gallery. Photo: Peter Oliver Wolff.
With two locations spread across the city, Galerie EIGEN + ART enters Gallery Weekend with two major exhibitions. At their main gallery on Auguststraße, works by the German artist Olaf Nicolai will be shown in the exhibition “I never look at you from the place from which you see me.” The show will feature a series of photographs taken in June 2022 in Olympia, Greece, which were created using the type of mirror used to ignite the Olympic Flame via the sun’s powerful rays. Meanwhile, at EIGEN + ART Lab, its experimental space on Torstraße, two young and exciting positions — artists Elsay Rouy and Emil Urbanek — come together for a special joint exhibition featuring their distinct figurative paintings.
“I never look at you from the place from which you see me” by Olaf Nicolai is on view at the main Galerie EIGEN + ART space from 27 April to 27 May, while “Elsay Rouy & Emil Urbanek” is on view at the Lab space from 20 April to 3 June. The main gallery is located at Auguststraße 26, 10117 Berlin, and EIGEN + ART Lab is at Torstraße 220, 10115 Berlin. The opening hours are Tuesday to Saturday, from 11 AM to 6 PM, for the main space and Tuesday to Friday, from 2 PM to 6 PM, and Saturday, from 11 AM to 6 PM for the Lab space. Please see their website for special Gallery Weekend opening hours.
Farkhondeh Shahroudi. "Degrees of Freedom," 2020. felt-tip pen on paper. 170 x 100 cm. Photo by Piotr Pietrus. Courtesy: Crone Gallery, Berlin Vienna.
There is a powerful quote by artist Neda Saeedi that unifies Crone’s Gallery Weekend exhibition: “It is hard to understand the ocean from a dryland.” The show features a range of works by Yalda Afsah, Parastou Forouhar, Anahita Razmi, Neda Saeedi, Farkhondeh Shahroudi, Soheila Sokhanvari, Mona Kasra, Mehraneh Atashi, Nooshin Farhid, and Ramesch Daha. In the powerful new show — curated by Başak Şenova, professor of research at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna — the artists interrogate such issues as surveillance, identity politics, and economic and social changes.
“Simurgh. Ten Women Artists from Iran” is on view from 28 April to 17 June. The gallery is located at Fasanenstrasse 29, 10719 Berlin. The opening hours are Tuesday to Saturday, 11 AM to 6 PM. Please see their website for special Gallery Weekend opening hours.
Bjørn Melhus. "GATEKEEPERS," 2023 (production photos). Courtesy Ebensperger.
The German artist Bjørn Melhus returns to Ebensperger’s premises in the former Crematorium Wedding ten years after his first solo show at the gallery. With a sharp focus on such themes as dystopias, utopias, borders, and disease, [dramatic music continues]” will contain a variety of video works produced between 2020 and 2023, as well as a new series called “GATEKEEPERS” made specifically for Gallery Weekend.
“[dramatic music continues]” by Bjørn Melhus is on view from 28 April to 17 June. The gallery is located at Plantagenstraße 30, 13347 Berlin. The opening hours are Wednesday to Saturday, 12 PM to 6 PM. Please see their website for special Gallery Weekend opening hours.
Marina Adams. "Stanleys Repetoire," 2022. Acrylic on linen. 198 x 172.7 cm. Courtesy Marina Adams and Galerie Thomas Schulte, Berlin.
With her “Mother Tongue” exhibition, American artist Marina Adams showcases her command of color through a series of recent paintings — including a large-scale canvas stretched across Galerie Thomas Schulte’s Corner Space. A poetic composition of symbols and shapes fuses through colored planes in the works; referencing everything from the female body and Nina Simone to the sea and Picasso.
“Mother Tongue” by Marina Adams is on view from 28 April to 10 June. The gallery is located at Charlottenstrasse 24, D-10117 Berlin. The opening hours are Tuesday to Saturday, 12 PM to 6 PM. Please see their website for special Gallery Weekend opening hours.
Timur Si-Qin, 2023. Courtesy the artist and Société, Berlin.
For his fifth solo exhibition at Société, Timur Si-Qin will present sculptures that touch on his interests in ecology and evolution. A selection of pieces will focus on the origins of the coronavirus, which he views as a planetary immune response. Since growing up in Beijing and America, the artist of German and Mongolian-Chinese heritage has settled in Berlin and drawn acclaim for incorporating the hectic, oversaturated digital world into his work.
“Natural Origin” by Timur Si-Qin is on view from 28 April to 26 May. The gallery is located at Wielandstraße 26, 10707 Berlin. The opening hours are Monday to Saturday, 10 AM to 6 PM. Please see their website for special Gallery Weekend opening hours.
Michael Rakowitz. “I‘m good at love, I‘m good at hate, it‘s in between I freeze" (film still). Courtesy the artist and Galerie Barbara Wien, Berlin.
For Iraqi-American artist Michael Rakowitz, a core theme in his work is tapping into his Arabic-Jewish heritage. With his third solo exhibition at Barbara Wien, the artist examines the relationship between art and politics through a new iteration of his film project, “I‘m good at love, I‘m good at hate, it‘s in between I freeze,” which began with his deep interest in the work and life of Canadian singer and poet Leonard Cohen — particularly Cohen’s thoughts and experience with the Israeli-Palestine conflict.
“I‘m good at love, I‘m good at hate, it‘s in between I freeze” by Michael Rakowitz is on view from 28 April to 29 July. The gallery is located at Schöneberger Ufer 65, 3rd floor, 10785 Berlin. The opening hours are Tuesday to Friday, 11 AM to 6 PM, and Saturday, 11 AM to 4 PM. Please see their website for special Gallery Weekend opening hours.
Anne Duk Hee Jordan. "Clam Extravaganza, The Worm," Urania Berlin e.V., Germany, 2021. Photo: theta.cool. Copyright: Anne Duk Hee Jordan. Courtesy of the artist and alexander levy.
Two powerful shows await art lovers at Alt-Moabit 110, the location of both LEVY Galerie and alexander levy. First, at LEVY, the show “Wanderung | Journey” offers a selection of works by Max Neumann, one of the foremost artists of German figuration. With carefully laid out compositions featuring silhouetted figures, the paintings bring a distinct abstraction to the human figure. Meanwhile, alexander levy will show “Worlds Away,” its first solo exhibition of artist Anne Duk Hee Jordan. Anchored on ideas of transformation and transience, the works fuse sociopolitical and ecological issues through a series of spatial, sensory experiences that demand to be seen.
“Wanderung | Journey” by Max Neumann is on view from 29 April to 24 June, while “Worlds Away” by Anne Duk Hee Jordan is on view from 28 April to 24 June. Both galleries are located at Alt-Moabit 110, 10559 Berlin. The opening hours for both galleries are Wednesday to Saturday, 11 AM to 6 PM. Please see their respective websites for special Gallery Weekend opening hours.
Hiwa K. "Like A Good, Good, Good Boy," 2023. Multi-channel video installation. Courtesy the artist and KOW.
Situated in the east of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, the city of Sulaymaniyah becomes the focal point for Hiwa K’s new show, “Like a Good, Good, Good Boy.” A selection of works that span everything from backlit collages to sculptures is presented, with a three-part video installation by the Kurdish-Iraqi artist acting as the foundation. The film shows three places vital to his youth: his childhood home, his school, and the Amna Suraka prison — a notorious place where Saddam Hussein’s henchmen used to torture and murder Iraqis from 1979 through 1991. In the packed slate of art happenings around the city, this powerful show is not one to be missed.
“Like a Good, Good, Good Boy” by Hiwa K is on view from 28 April to 1 July. The gallery is located at Lindenstr. 35, 10969 Berlin. The opening hours are Tuesday to Saturday, from 12 PM to 6 PM. Please see their website for special Gallery Weekend opening hours.
Josefine Reisch. "Dowry" (installation view) at Galerie Noah Klink. Courtesy Galerie Noah Klink.
For her third solo exhibition at Galerie Noah Link, the Berlin-based artist Josefine Reisch takes aim at the stark juxtapositions between such themes as royalism and socialism, glory and failure, and pomp and pretense. By using golden hues throughout the gallery — from heavy curtains to paintings — she invites viewers to question the contrast between celebrity and politics.
“Dowry” by Josefine Reisch is on view from 28 April to 10 June. The gallery is located at Kulmer Straße 17, 10783 Berlin. The opening hours are Thursday to Saturday, from 12 PM to 6 PM. Please see their website for special Gallery Weekend opening hours.
Chris Erik Thomas is the Digital Editor of Art Düsseldorf. They work as a freelance writer and editor in Berlin and focus primarily on culture, art, and media. Their work can also be seen in Highsnobiety, The Face Magazine, and other publications.
