Calling Berlin’s Gallery Weekend overwhelming would be a bit of an understatement.
With 47 participating galleries opening up their doors between 1 – 3 May to show work by 70 artists, it’s no easy task to decide what exhibitions are worth braving the crowds for. And that’s not to mention the shows at local heavyweights like KW Institute and Haus der Kulturen der Welt. To save you the stress of trying to figure out what to see we’ve rounded up seven solid choices (in no particular order). Don’t fret if you miss out on exhibitions during the weekend, though—luckily all of our Gallery Weekend picks keep showing for a while after the mad weekend rush is finished.
Francois Morellet – DASH DASH DASH
Blain Southern | 1 May - 15 AugustCreating geometric grids and patterns out of metal and neon, working with mathematical precision to conjure up apparent abstraction, Francois Morellet was a master of minimal art before it was cool. Featuring works as early as the 1950s and as recent as this year, this show will be the French artist’s first big Berlin exhibition since his last one in ’77.
Rosa Barba – Inside a Magnified Picture
Meyer Riegger | 1 May - 20 JuneShowing her 2012 film Time in Perspective for the first time in Germany, Italian-German Rosa Barba puts viewers directly inside a larger-than-life picture by projecting the film onto the window of the gallery space. A seemingly endless loop of oil rigs in a Texan desert, the film is accompanied by several installations also centred on the concept of time, which Barba seems out to render nearly obsolete via work that feels somehow both futuristic and nostalgic at the same time.
Richard Mosse – Richard Mosse
Carlier Gebauer | 1 May - 6 JuneUsing discontinued Kodak Aerochrome film, which was originally created for aerial surveillance, Irish documentary photographer Richard Mosse depicts conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo via a unique perspective. His infrared landscapes and portraits of soldiers are shot through with stunning colour: bleeding red tones, shocking pinks, impossible blues. Is it photojournalism or is it art? Mosse lets the viewer decide.
Berta Fischer – Berta Fischer
Galerie Barbara Weiss; showing at a temporary space at Bleibtreustrasse 41 | 30 April - 15 AugustBerlin-based Berta Fischer’s sculptures are a bit like a children’s book made 3-dimensional: vividly colourful, playful, and completely surreal. Working with materials like acrylic glass and polyethylene, her glittering multi-coloured forms alternate between geometric and organic—either way, Fischer’s work manages to be both unsettling and serene.
Roman Ondák – Roman Ondák
Johnen Galerie | 1 May - 20 JuneSlovakian artist Roman Ondák is probably best known for Measuring the Universe, a 2007 installation at NY’s Museum of Modern Art which collected the heights of about 90,000 visitors to create a strange, heavy line of data hovering around the white wall of the gallery room. A preoccupation with time and measuring underlies much of Ondák’s conceptual work, which typically invites visitors to somehow interact—whether through actually becoming part of the work or simply by re-evaluating the everyday items which Ondák often uses.
johnengalerie.de
Elliott Hundley – Elliott Hundley
VeneKlasen/Werner | 1 May - 20 JuneThough he often works with various media, LA’s Elliott Hundley focuses on painting for his first solo Berlin exhibition. Exploring classical imagery while still maintaining the hyper-modern feeling that characterises his intricate, carefully colourful, large-scale pieces. Hundley’s massive paintings are so unbelievably detailed that you could probably just spend the entirety of Gallery Weekend staring at one of them until your eyes turn square and still not get bored.
Jeppe Hein – Opening
Johann König Galerie | 1 May - 31 MayWorking out of Berlin and Copenhagen, Jeppe Hein makes art that you can really get immersed in—literally, as his mirrored structures are often big enough to walk through, trapping the viewer in a labyrinth of angled reflections. Hein’s the sort of artist who likes viewers to get involved: another current exhibition of his, a public installation at Brooklyn Bridge Park, NY, is titled Please Touch the Art. Come ready to get lost.
johannkoenig.de/211/4/jeppe_hein/exhibitions
Berlin Gallery Weekend begins 1 May and continues across the weekend. More information at gallery-weekend-berlin.de/
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