wanderlust

Crush It!: Your Guide To Berlin’s Gallery Weekend

What’s going on?!

It’s spring, and that can only mean one thing: Gallery Weekend! Finally we’ve reached that glorious time of year when the leaves come out, flowers bloom, the sun reveals itself after hibernation, and the art world focuses its attention on Berlin. During this alternative art fair, galleries across Berlin will open their own doors rather than shoving their exhibitions into small booths in a packed and pallid stadium. Originally instigated by only a few art galleries, Gallery Weekend has grown to accommodate over fifty spaces. As the official Gallery Weekend website informs, there will be “51 galleries” with “51 openings,” but you have three days to catch them all. We at BAPs have simplified your life and narrowed down the list to the top 15 openings to visit in three of Berlin’s most famous arts districts. This is our official guide to Gallery Weekend!

When is it?!

All of the participating Gallery Weekend galleries, including our curated listed below, will have their opening parties on Friday, April 26th from 6-9pm. They will then be open on Saturday and Sunday between 11am-7pm.

Where should I go?!

Mitte

  • BQ: Alexandra Bircken

This exhibition has two locations, but fret not: they’re right across the street from each other. The Cologne-based artist Alexandra Bircken will present an exhibition entitled Inside Out at BQ’s main space and another called Lunge in the smaller, glass building on the other side of the road. Two for the price of one––always works for us!

Next door to BQ is the young gallery Croy Nielsen, which will showcase works by South African born but German-raised Mandla Reuter. Expect a full-scale yet aesthetically minimal installation for which both the gallery and the artist are known.

Not to be confused with the singer of the same name, New York-based artist Avery Singer will be having a solo show at this “post-internet” aware space. Located on the 4th floor of an office building, don’t get discouraged if you feel you’re on your way to a lackluster office meeting: trust us, there’s actually a thrilling exhibition in store for you.

Canadian artist AA Bronson recently received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, and his biggest advocate and collaborator Michael Bühler-Rose is partnering with him for an exhibition here in Berlin. The two have conspired before in New York and will take their joint act over to the Netherlands later this year. Their Berlin exhibition is perhaps one of the best opportunities you have to see some socially conscious yet hip artwork this year.

This Vienna-based artist has been rather vague about his upcoming solo show at Galerie Kamm. The press release is just a poem about Humpty Dumpty, offering zero hints about what to expect. Since I’m a big fan of his latest works, I strongly recommend you check out what this enigmatic artist has up his sleeve.

Schöneberg/Tiergarten

While its official exhibiting artist is Aleksandra Domanovic, the gallery will also host a performance by duo Calla Henkel and Max Pitegoff on Friday. Although Domanovic is known for work that dives occasionally into the world of digital art, Max and Calla have been performing diverse “self-performances” for the last few years. If variety is your thing, this exhibition is worth stopping by.

Entitled A Life Without Shamem, this exhibition is McDevitt’s third solo show at the gallery. Combining photography, painting and drawings, McDevitt’s show promises to be a self-reflective collaborative exhibition with an “earlier, different self.” Head-scratching.

While most galleries are dedicating their spaces to young and emerging artists, Supportico Lopez is rebelling by showing an artist no longer living. Chopin, a French avant-garde poet who died tragically in 2008, lives on in a solo presentation of a manuscript written in over forty years ago. Entitled La Crevette Amoureuse (The Shrimp’s In Love), the “manuscript is a continuous movement of construction and deconstruction of meaning itself.”

Plan B, which has a satellite space in Cluj, Romania, has brought one of its celebrated Romanian artists to Berlin. Engaging in nearly all media, such as sculpture, drawing, painting, installation and video, Muresan has portfolio as diverse as Berlin’s art scene.

Mr. König has two openings on Friday, so don’t be confused or scared if you arrive at one space expecting another exhibition. Here in his main gallery space, he’ll be presenting a solo exhibition by Italian artist Monica Bonvicini. While she has previously examined topics such as architecture and masculinity, in her first solo exhibition at the gallery she’ll be showing new content and formats, including text-based works, cut-outs, and assemblages.

Kreuzberg

Alice Aycock has slowly become one of the most iconic artists of the last 100 years. Franka Hörnschemeyer has similarly risen to art star power, but unfortunately her status has not exceeded much beyond her native Germany. For Gallery Weekend the two will exhibit together, hopefully demonstrating to the art world that Hörnschemeyer should be praised in the same category as Aycock.

Boasting a roster of artists including Daniel Buren and John Chamberlin, when Buchmann-Galerie offers an artist a solo show, you know she has to be good. Pousttchi, a German-Iranian artist now based in Berlin, is known for her distorted sculptures and photographs, as well as her large paper posters she has used to cover the sides of buildings. While it’s unclear what she’ll be installing at the gallery this weekend, you can expect it to be be huge––literally.

With a name like Jerszy, this guy has got to be good, right? Jerszy Seymour is known for his messy furniture and chaotic installations that look more like a child’s attempt at interior design than fine art. If you are desirous to see what it would look like if you redecorated your apartment with a slingshot and a bucket of paint, this exhibition is right up your alley.

  • VW: Peter Saul

Did you ever have a buddy that majored in painting but spent more time with his bong than his brush? If so, you’re already familiar with the work by Peter Saul. Combining psychedelia, humor, and political satire, for the last few decades Saul has dominated a genre that he invented. If you wonder if there may be something in the free drinks that you’ve been sipping all night, relax knowing that it’s the paintings you’re seeing and not a bad acid trip.

We’ve interviewed Kwade as well as talked to König about the incredible space St. Agnes, a former church transformed into an exhibition hall. Bordering between expansive installation and immaculate surrealism, Kwade’s work will be appropriately framed by the church’s Brutalist architecture.

Article by James Shaeffer

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