Life-giving energy, pure beauty or destructive elemental force - water has always determined life and art. Impressionist painters such as Eugène Louis Boudin, Claude Monet and Paul Signac captured the beauty of light-flooded clouds, foamy waves and fleeting reflections of the water. The contemporary photographer Elger Esser, who consciously draws inspiration from the places and landscapes of the Impressionists, is also part of this tradition.
With seven contemporary positions, “Membrane” is dedicated to the appearance of skin: as a permeable surface that mediates between mental state and physical presence. It forms the resonance surface for cultural traditions and group affiliation, but also individuality. On display are photographs and paintings by Daniele Buetti, Slawomir Elsner, Shirin Neshat, Helena Parada Kim, Thomas Ruff, Nicola Samori and Cindy Sherman.
The exhibition ‘Garden. The Possibility of Life’ explores where and how life emerges in the interplay of nature and humanity. Young Hungarian contemporary artists engage in a fascinating dialogue with works by international star artists, like David Claerbout. His video, ‘Birdcage’ (2023), presented by the Gallery Rüdiger Schöttle at the Art Basel Unlimited 2024, explores questions of birth and death and it is now showcased in Budapest for the first time. The artworks in this exhibition view the garden as a space that exists beyond rational knowledge. It is bodily, unconscious, and constantly alive and changing.
The Poetics of Power exhibition questions and reveals the manifestations of power hidden behind symbols, gestures and relationships. It sheds light on the complicated nature of power, which is omnipresent and constantly reproduced in every interpersonal, cultural, national and economic interaction. Furthermore, she explores the poetic nature of power by recognizing its ubiquitous influence and ambivalence.
With "Floating Spheres", the Kunsthalle Emden is presenting an extensive retrospective of the Japanese-Swiss artist Leiko Ikemura. The exhibition brings together 76 works that offer a cross-section of her multifaceted oeuvre - from painting and works on paper to photography, video and sculpture. The works span an arc from the 1980s to the present day and reflect the artist's central recurring themes and motifs, accentuated by the exhibition architecture specially designed by the renowned architect Philipp von Matt.
With “PHOTO - ART - PHOTO”, the Clemens Sels Museum Neuss invites visitors for the first time in Germany to trace the significant influences of Symbolist and Pre-Raphaelite art on the history of photography. At the same time, contemporary positions open up a view of painterly tendencies in photography today. In the exhibition, historical portraits, nudes and landscapes are juxtaposed with works by contemporary photographic artists such as Thomas Ruff and Elger Esser.
The exhibition Frozen Mirrors, whose title was inspired by Umberto Eco's writings, is dedicated to the question of what illusions are and how they are reflected in today's art. The group exhibition presents works that reflect the standstill of time in an age in which we are constantly surrounded by moving images. On display are “photorealistic” paintings that are not always based on photographs; objects that are reproduced in exact life-size or monumentally enlarged; stagings of real objects that look like trompe-l'œils of themselves; photographs of still-life-like arrangements of everyday situations or those that fade longer periods of time into one another.
In his latest solo exhibition “Sweets Dreams”, Chen Wei examines contemporary life, dominated by screens and virtual realities. Conceived in a theatrical format in which virtuality and reality merge, the exhibition reimagines different contexts that reflect the systematization of modern society and the dreamscapes we create within this framework. "Sweet Dreams" provides a platform for reflection, prompts viewers to delve into the complex relationships between the Internet, sleep, and daily life.
"Isa Mona Lisa" is the ironic and playful title chosen for a large-scale exhibition that provides a lively glimpse of recent art via a selection of unusual works by international contemporary artists. The exhibition presents new acquisitions from the Hamburger Kunsthalle for the first time as well as iconic works from the collection.
China's opening to the Western, its enormous economic growth, or the transformation of lifestyles in Chinese society are subjects that have greatly influenced the lives of the generation of artists born between the late 1970s and the early 1990s and, as a result, their artistic production. With the aim of shedding light on this reality, the exhibition "目 Chine" has gathered the works of 21 artists, including photographer Chen Wei, who show an internal and subjective portrait of this reality.
Chen Wei, New Gate, 2021, Archival Inkjet print, 152 × 202,5 cm (framed), edition of 6 + 2 AP
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York presents a major retrospective of the German artist Thomas Schütte. Featuring sculptures, drawings, prints, and architectural experiments, the exhibition offers a comprehensive overview of his career from 1975 to the present. Focusing on aesthetics, form, and history, it aims to provide a deeper understanding of the artist's practice and introduce new audiences to one of today's most significant sculptors.
The exhibition "Write as the Beasts Cry at Night" unfolds in La Loge like an open book, a palimpsest where Marguerite Duras' aura intersects with legendary, intimate writings. Through tracing, imprinting, and fragmenting, the artist focuses on what her chosen materials represent, searching for recollections she can extract. Thu Van Tran scrutinises contaminated memories, the processes of disappearance and reappearance, and buried violence to sketch out a new imaginary.
The exhibition "Walk This Way" spans an arc from the 1960s to the present day and draws attention to works by contemporary artists in which the city becomes a stage and the act of walking becomes an artistic statement. The exhibition brings together works by artists who playfully and provocatively follow their own paths of exploration, appropriation, reinterpretation and reoccupation, and shows a world in motion in which the viewer is sensually and emotionally involved.
Candida Höfer will be awarded the Käthe Kollwitz Prize 2024. With this prize, the Akademie der Künste honors one of the most internationally recognized German photographers, whose œuvre, which has grown over five decades, is considered part of the contemporary photographic avant-garde. The prize will be awarded on September 13, 2024, as part of Berlin Art Week at the Akademie der Künste on the Pariser Platz. On the occasion, the Akademie der Künste will be presenting an exhibition featuring works by Candida Höfer.
Portrait of Candida Höfer, 2024, photo: Ralph Müller
The Neue Galerie Bitburg is presenting Elger Esser's latest solo exhibition “Die engen Wasser” (The narrow waters). Esser's photographic landscapes are pictorial homages to the beauty of nature. The artist works mainly in France, in Normandy and Brittany and on the Loire. His precisely composed landscapes, which are preferably taken in cloudy weather conditions with subdued atmospheric scattered light and long exposure times, play with horizontals and the effect of depth.
“What's the Story?” opens a dialogue between the KSMKA Collection and contemporary artists, including David Claerbout. Although time passes and the world continues its fast-paced and ever-increasing progress, the main themes and issues that impregnate our society and the art remain the same. The exhibition celebrates the different generations of artists and the way they influence and inspire each other.
Martin Creed's celebrated “Work No. 3868 Half the air in a given space” has taken over the space and the very air present in OCMA's Yvonne de C Segerstrom Gallery. Acting as a tangible measure of air, an invisible substance that defines free space, this playful inversion of art and space encourages visitors to change the shape and volume of the work themselves.
"Born From Stone" is an immersive installation by Goshka Macuga, inspired by the ancient Roman temple of Mithras discovered beneath the current site of Bloomberg’s European headquarters. For the exhibition, the artist created a transformational cave-like installation featuring sculptural rock formations which evoke the subterranean landscape of the temple’s origins. Within this immersive environment, visitors will encounter a selection of works, carefully curated by Macuga on loan from Imperial War Museums.
"Cuentos Posibles" provides a profound insight into Jeff Wall's unique artistic production and highlights his major influence on the (re)definition of photography as an integral part of contemporary art. The exhibition showcases works from 1978 to the present day, encompassing a wide spectrum of registers and modes of expression that range from pure description to beginnings of possible tales.
To this day, the representation of the human body continues to be central to artistic practice, both in terms of exploring concepts of beauty and aesthetics and due to its cultural, political, and symbolic implications. "Faire Corps," the fourteenth exhibition held at Fondation Villa Datris, explores visions of the body and its different aspects through the works of 60 international artists, including Stephan Balkenhol.
"Survival in the 21st Century" explores the fundamentals of life in the modern era, human existence and survival in the 21st century; a century marked by progress and innovation, but also by conflict and uncertainty about the future. The exhibition presents a great selection of works, ranging from painting, sculpture, photograph, textile and even installation. Featured artists include Goshka Macuga and Thomas Struth, among others.
Forum Würth Rorschach presents its 10th-anniversary exhibition under the title "Water, Clouds and Wind". A selection of artworks from the Würth Collection which focuses on these natural phenomena. Phenomena that are not only determining factors in our climate but have also been an essential part of art history since immemorial times.
