Berlin Gallery Weekend Guide: Three Curators Share Their Top Picks

What started out in 2014 as just a small group of local artists coming together at the beginning of the spring season has turned into a key date in the global art calendar. Now in its 14th year, Gallery Weekend will see nearly 50 galleries will open their doors to the public and showcase work from a pool of emerging as well as established artists. With so many participating galleries, it can be hard to choose what to see. We asked three Berlin-based curators to recommend three exhibitions to our readers, their answers have provided us with a list that ranges from the abstract to the classic — read on to find out what cannot be missed this Gallery Weekend.

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An art history and philosophy graduate of the Ruhr Universitat Bochum, Marzona went on to become a curator at the P.S.1 Contemporary Art Institute in New York before returning to Germany. In 2007 he became director of the Konrad Fischer Galerie in Berlin and then in 2014 opened his own eponymous gallery, ‘Daniel Marzona’, in the thriving arts hub of Kreuzberg.

Address:
Daniel Marzona
Friedrichstraße 17
10969 Berlin

Stanley Brouwn
KONRAD FISCHER GALERIE

Ever the elusive individual, the late Dutch artist Stanley Brouwn refused interviews, didn’t turn up to show openings and didn’t allow his work to be put online. Instead, he preferred to let his work speak for itself. So it’s a rare thing to be able to view his conceptual artwork. Luckily, Konrad Fischer Galerie — the gallery that represented him during his lifetime — will be showing a selection of his subtly profound, mysterious work.

Address:
Konrad Fischer Galerie
Lindenstrasse 35
10969 Berlin

Willi Baumeister
KUNSTHANDEL WOLFGANG WERNER 

The iconic late German artists’ work hardly needs an introduction. Sure to be a popular choice for Gallery Weekenders, the Kunsthandel Wolfgang Werner will exhibit 13 of Baumeister’s abstract paintings and symbols. A forerunner and game changer of abstract, modernist art, Baumeister had a lasting influence on young German post-war modernism. Not to be missed.

Address:
Kunsthandel Wolfgang Werner
Fasanenstraße 72
10719 Berlin

R.H. Quaytman & Cheney Thompson
GALERIE BUCHHOLZ

The two New York-based artists will be both be exhibiting at the contemporary international art gallery. R.H. Quaytman will put up a selection of paintings that he first showcased at the Vienna frieze: a series of landscape paintings that have been superimposed onto a photograph he took while on a research trip to Poland. Thompson’s collection of “paintings, a collection of gestures, a collection of names, of bodies… lines… pathways” will also be on show. The collection centers around the Roman goddess of war, Bellona, a woman whose story has been told and re-told throughout history.

Address:
Galerie Buchholz
Fasanenstraße 30
10719 Berlin

Hailing from Düsseldorf, artist and curator Nina Pohl set up Schinkel Pavillon back in 2007. A major platform for contemporary sculpture, media and installation art, the Schinkel Pavilion is an important space in Berlin. It also has a special place in the city’s history, being designed by famous East German architect Richard Paulick.

Address:
Schinkel Pavillon
Oberwallstrasse 1
10117 Berlin

Yngve Holen
GALERIE NEU

Norwegian artist Yngve Holen, whose work is founded upon the polemic between human life and automation, machinery and industrialization, isn’t one to shy away from controversy. Holen’s portfolio includes a 3-D printed supermarket chicken which he ran over and then placed on top of a washing machine. For his second solo show at Galerie Neu, Holen “gutted” five different sports utility vehicles. After 3D-scanning the car parts and milling them in cross-laminated timber, he will present them as cut up, disembodied objects for the exhibition.

Address:
Galerie Neu
Linienstraße 119
10115 Berlin

Carl Andre
KONRAD FISCHER GALERIE

Winner of the Guggenheim fellowship and the first artist to exhibit at the Konrad Fischer, Carl Andre is an American minimalist artist and poet noted for his grid-shaped monochrome sculptures and carefully arranged forms. Konrad Fischer’s new Neue Grünstraße location will be showing a laddered, white block structure which epitomizes Andre’s body of work.

Address:
Konrad Fischer Galerie
Lindenstraße 34-35
10969 Berlin

Senga Nengudi
SPRÜTH MAGERS

For over four decades, artist Senga Nengudi has been pushing the boundaries of sculpture, photography, and performance. A prominent figure in African American avant-garde in the late 1970s, Nengudi began her career with innovative sculptures and performances that questioned pre-existing notions of femininity. The exhibition, which is her first solo one at the gallery, features four recent sculptures from Nengudi’s ‘R.S.V.P’ series — an ongoing sculptural project created in response to her changing pregnant body.

Address:
Sprüth Magers
Oranienburger Str. 18
10178 Berlin

Galerie Thomas Schulte was founded by Thomas Shulte and Eric Franck in 1991, originally under the name Galerie Franck + Schulte. As one of the first spaces to open after the city’s reunion, it gained a lot of attention from critics and the public alike. Most significantly, its program reflected the cultural development of the city. In 1996 he was one of the founding members of the Berlin art fair ‘Art Forum’.

Address:
Galerie Thomas Schulte
Charlottenstraße 24
10117 Berlin

The new location of
GALERIE KONRAD FISCHER

After 50 years, the Konrad Fischer Galerie is moving. And for three days over the Gallery Weekend, it will open its doors and let visitors preview the space before its rumored completion date in early 2019. Moving into a former industrial transformer station in Mitte, the gallery seems to be returning to more traditional exhibition spaces of the ’90s and early ’00s. Exhibiting artist Manfred Pernice, who visited the building with artist and gallerist Berta Fischer, proposed that the site be used for one exhibition before official construction starts.

Address:
Konrad Fischer Galerie
Neue Grünstraße 12
10179 Berlin

THE ETHNOLOGICAL MUSEUM

The museum’s holdings comprise circa 500,000 ethnographic, archaeological and historico-cultural objects from Africa, Asia, America, Australia and the South Seas. Archival material incorporates film, sound recordings, written documents and physical objects. Currently, the museum has three exhibitions running: ‘Beyond Compare: Art from Africa in the Bode-Museum’, ‘Humboldt-Box, Listening to the World’ and ‘New Neighbours. On the Way to Humboldt Forum’.

Address:
The Ethnological Museum
Arnimallee 25
14195 Berlin

The sculptures of
THE BODE MUSEUM

The domed building of the historic Bode Museum is located in the middle of the water in Berlin’s Museum Island. One of two collections housed at The Bode Museum, the ‘Sculpture Collection and Museum of Byzantine Arts’ is one of the largest sculpture offerings in the world. With pieces made from all mediums, including wood, alabaster, marble, and ivory, the exhibition is one of the most extensive.

Address:
Bode Museum
Am Kupfergraben
10117 Berlin

Gallery Weekend takes place from 27th to the 29th April, Berlin. You can find the full program here and a map of the participating gallery locations can be seen here.