Discover Berlin’s vibrant art scene with our guide to the city’s must-see exhibitions. From the world-class Museum Island to private galleries on the cutting edge and unique underground art spaces, Berlin has it all. Make sure you read on for exhibition opening dates, gallery locations and more details for a diverse range of shows.
We order our listings with what’s closing soonest at the top. That way, you’ll never miss out.
THROUGH SEP 09
The Pazzi Conspiracy: Power, Violence and Art in Renaissance Florence
There’s something enjoyable about visiting a show within a show. While everyone else saunters through the permanent collections, you can purposefully march straight to it – that is, if you can find it. Even the Bode Museum guards weren’t quite sure where it was, hidden around the back of the coin section. In a story worthy of The Godfather, the supreme Renaissance patrons Lorenzo and Giuliano de’ Medici were ambushed in a cathedral where Giuliano was killed and Lorenzo escaped. Through medals and artefacts, the exhibition traces the now-legendary episode and its significance for the Renaissance. Coins can often be fairly tedious, but the narrative is fast-paced and has magnificent highlights, such as Sandro Botticelli’s portrait of Giuliano, his downcast eyes heavy with foreknowledge.
- Through Sep 9, Bode Museum, details
THROUGH SEP 13
PRÉSENT – 10 Years of TROPEZ!
For 10 years, TROPEZ has presented contemporary art with a dose of pommes and mayo, chlorine and wet footprints. “We always warn the artists that by the end of the summer, there’s a chance the artwork might not exist,” says artistic director Nada Hussein. “People walk around, their wet hair dripping all over the sculptures.” That encounter is exactly what makes TROPEZ special. The exhibition PRÉSENT will include performances, concerts, talks, children’s workshops and a new reading series for kids alongside. As ever at TROPEZ, much will depend on weather, swimmers and the curious, often inexplicable behaviour of children.
- Jun 6-Sep 13, Sommerbad Humboldthain, details
THROUGH SEP 13
Kyiv Biennial: A Bird That Cannot Land
The Kyiv Biennial has again found a temporary home outside Ukraine, which says much about Europe’s current state of affairs and the uneasy realities of making culture in exile. Its Berlin chapter will take place at the KW. A building-wide exhibition and a live programme of sound, performance and discourse will turn the institution into a charged site of arrival, displacement and refusal. Highlights include a concert by Bulgarian Voices Berlin on Sunday June 14, followed the same day by Anna Ehrenstein and Yara Mekawei’s The Cloud Is Still Balkanized.
- Openings Jun 10 and Jun 14,
- Jun 11-Sept 13, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, details
THROUGH SEP 14
Marc Brandenburg: 20th Century Debris
Marc Brandenburg is a documentarian and commentator on contemporary urban life who aptly depicts the heights and pitfalls of late-stage capitalism. His solo exhibition 20th Century Debris displays more than 100 of his drawings in conversation with videos, tattoo editions and photos. In the centre of the exhibition, Brandenburg’s works are shown under black light, causing white areas in his works to glow and giving the drawings an almost 3D effect. Temporary tattoos, which are also part of the exhibition, have been a part of Brandenburg’s practice since 2012. He notably made a special edition for the 10 year anniversary of Berghain.
- Through Sep 14, Berlinische Galerie, details
THROUGH SEP 20
Alicja Rogalska: Counterplay
Counterplay is a solo exhibition of works by Alicja Rogalska whose research-led practice investigates societal conditions that engender exploitative labour practices within platform economies. In her work, Rogalska collaborates with Berlin-based bike couriers to gather their first hand reports on the poor working conditions they face. The exhibition also serves to collectively conjure an imaginary future that challenges these economical and social injustices. The exhibition includes Rogalska’s newest video work, ‘Rerouting’ (2026), which engages with the concept of game play as a medium for critical debate.
- Through Sept 20, Galerie Nord, details
THROUGH SEP 27
Cassirer and the Breakthrough of Impressionism
One-hundred years after his death, Paul Cassirer is being commemorated at the Alte Nationalgalerie. As one of the world’s most important art dealers, Cassirer brought names like Van Gogh, Monet, Manet and Renoir to the German public. The Cassirer and the Breakthrough of Impressionism exhibition travels through Impressionism and showcases Cassier’s commitment to the arts.
- Through Sept 27, Alte Nationalgalerie, details
THROUGH SEP 30
Thuy-Han Nguyen-Chi and Andrew Yong Hoon Lee: CIEL
Thuy-Han Nguyen-Chi and Andrew Yong Hoon Lee’s joint work CIEL transforms the exhibition space into a surreal environment in which a horse’s saddle breaks through the ceiling and its hooves rise up from the floor. Storytelling, language, poetry and political activism are central to the work. Objects challenge the confines of the space itself. Industrial pipes installed on the ground appear to connect the two rooms of the exhibition and, up close, the sound installation that the two artists collaborated on can be heard. The work is inspired by a conversation with a political prisoner who reported that she was able to communicate with her fellow inmates through the underground sewage pipes.
- Through Sep 30, parallelgesellschaft x Galerie Nord, details
THROUGH OCT 4
DISSOLUTIONS Sequence II: Mooni Perry
Mooni Perry’s solo-exhibition marks the second sequence in the Dissolutions series at Kunst Raum Mitte. The presentation centers around Perry’s video work ‘EL’ in which fictional characters play out a narrative inspired by the artist’s research into East Asian history – more specifically the complex colonial history of Japan’s rule in Korea and puppet state Manchukuo in northeastern China. Set in the dated hotel interior of the former Yamato Hotel in Shenyang, China, a young Korean poet and a Chinese opera singer reflect on their lived realities while dipping in and out of dream sequences. Ghostly appearances and an ominous atmosphere blend reality, fiction, history and speculative future. In the listening room adjacent to Perry’s video visitors can explore the stories of female performers of the Choson Opera Troupe that toured through Korea, Japan and Manchukuo via a sound and research installation.
- Through Oct 4, Kunst Raum Mitte, details
THROUGH OCT 11
After Memory
After Memory is a group exhibition which evolves from the ongoing research project of the same name that draws on the input from key figures in art, science, technology, museology, and activism. The project investigates how we remember and forget in a world of information overload and decreasing separation between online and offline life. Memory has become digital real estate and is segmented into online bubbles shaped by algorithms. The exhibited works at Kunstraum Kreuzberg by 15 international artists consider both the risks that social media, artificial intelligence, clouded and automated data storage pose as well as the potential therein.
- Through Oct 11, Kunstraum Kreuzberg, details
Symphony of Colors
The first comprehensive Paul Signac exhibition in Germany in decades, Symphony of Colors: Paul Signac and Neo-Impressionism explores the artist’s role within the Neo-Impressionist movement and his influence on the art world of the late 19th century. The exhibition features almost 100 works, a third of them Signac’s.
- Through Oct 11, Museum Barberini, details
THROUGH OCT 25
Fog Sculpture in the Sculpture Garden of the Neue Nationalgalerie
Back by popular demand, Japanese artist Fujiko Nakaya’s installation in the Neue Nationalgalerie’s sculpture garden, dis- and reorients, reframing the sculptures installed in the garden. The sculpture starts on the hour and every half hour between 11:00 and 17:00, except on Thursdays it runs until 19:00.
- Through Oct 25, Neue Nationalgalerie, details
THROUGH NOV 15
Rooms / Stages and Helmut Newton’s One-off Album
The Helmut Newton is hosting a dual exhibition made up of two parts, both dedicated to transforming space into a stage. The front room exhibits a group show, Rooms / Stages, displaying the works of 12 artists. Helmut Newton’s One-Off album, located at the rear of the space, comprises 103 works by Newton and is being presented in its entirety in Berlin for the first time.
- Jun 5-Nov 15, Helmut Newton Foundation, details
- Opening Jun 4, 20:00
THROUGH NOV 15
Scandal! Hermione von Preuschen and the ‘Mors Imperator‘
This painting on display at the Alte Nationalgalerie scandalised Berlin society by depicting Kaiser Wilhelm I as a skeleton throwing down his regal throne. The artist, Hermione von Preuschen, ignored the Berlin Academy and took the bold step of exhibiting it herself. Berliners were allegedly so disapproving of it they queued around the block to see it, suggesting not much has changed in the art world in the last century and a half. It’s a mesmerising work: a skeletal foot curls grotesquely around a blue globe. The curators have placed it in the centre of an octagonal room, and it’s clearly been given a glow-up; restorers have made the lavish embroidery and furnishings gleam. But more striking is von Preuschen’s single-minded drive, pushing against the constraints placed on women at the time.
- Through Nov 15, Alte Nationalgalerie, details
THROUGH NOV 22
Ruin at the Venice Biennale
Though not technically in Berlin, Sung Tieu and the late Henrike Naumann bring the afterlives of East Germany to the German Pavilion in Venice. Titled Ruin and curated by Kathleen Reinhardt, director of the Georg Kolbe Museum, the project centres on the unresolved legacies of East Germany and those raised in the disordered aftermath of reunification. Outside, more than 3.2 million tiles cover the pavilion’s fascist, colonnaded façade, redesigned by the National Socialists in 1938. In one of the pavilion’s interior wings, Tieu installed an infestation of ladybird chocolates, turning what is usually a symbol of good luck into a nasty metaphor for the perception of migrant workers. For all the fleshy, abject thrills of Florentina Holzinger’s Austrian Pavilion and the furore around Russia’s inclusion, the dark ambivalences of Ruin leaves the most piercing mark.
- Through Nov 22, German Pavilion, Venice, details
THROUGH DEC 6
Gabriele Stötzer: Dabei sein und nicht schweigen
In Gabriele Stötzer’s works, the naked female body becomes a site of feminist empowerment – a force of resistance that overcomes societal limitations and challenges norms. She was sentenced to one year in prison in the GDR during the late 70s after being convicted of defamation of state. That did little to silence her political activism, rather it strengthened the rebellious tone of her artistic practice. Through diverse media such as painting, literature, photography, textile art, Super 8 film and performance, Stötzer explores themes of loss and isolation as well as female joy, desire and empowerment. The exhibition marks the artist’s largest institutional solo exhibition to date.
- Through Dec 6, Gropius Bau, details
THROUGH JAN 3
Shilpa Gupta’s What Still Holds
Shilpa Gupta, TRUTH, 2022–2025, © Courtesy Shilpa Gupta und Galleria Continua, Photo: Ela Bialkowska, OKNOstudio
Mumbai-based artist Shilpa Gupta interrogates the conditions under which speech is permitted, constrained or silenced. Working across sculpture, drawing, installation, video, public interventions and books, she addresses political persecution, border violence, religious nationalism and the lived consequences of military occupation. Language in Gupta’s work is never neutral or abstract; it appears as something embodied, fractured and precarious, shaped by power rather than freely available to all. In her new exhibition What Still Holds at the Hamburger Bahnhof, selected works are placed in dialogue with those of Joseph Beuys, whose ideas of voice, participation and social responsibility are reframed through Gupta’s uncompromising attention to censorship and the material risks of speaking in the present.
- Through Jan 3, Hamburger Bahnhof, details
THROUGH JAN 10
Lina Lapelytė: We Make Years Out of Hours
This year’s CHANEL commission was awarded to Lithuanian artist Lina Lapelytė, whose site-specific installation made up of wooden blocks, sound and performance takes over Hamburger Bahnhof’s central hall. Alongside the performers, visitors are encouraged to participate in building the ever-evolving architecture of blocks while engulfed by a sound piece that draws on texts by literary figures such as Etel Adnan and Ocean Vuong.
- Through Jan 10, Hamburger Bahnhof, details
Glas | Beton | Metall
This is a special year for Bauhaus. Last September marked the 100th anniversary of its move to Dessau in 1925, a moment the city and foundation are celebrating with an ongoing raft of new exhibitions. This exhibition recommendation isn’t technically in Berlin, but Dessau is a mere two-hour jaunt from Berlin on an ICE train, passing IKEA stores and long, flat-roofed warehouses that the movement helped popularise. The Bauhaus Building was completed in 1926, astonishingly within just one year, its stripped-back aesthetic is composed of what were then innovative building materials: glass, steel and concrete. These materials form the thematic backbone of its three new exhibitions: Glass, Concrete and Metal.
The shows are on the scholarly side, requiring a fair amount of foot shuffling and wall text reading. The glass section could use a few more objects. Concrete includes examples of wooden framing that remained integral to its building process. The metal exhibition is excellent, with an enormous narrative wall linking the movement to mining and industry in the region.
- Through Jan 10, Bauhaus Building Dessau, details
Destiny in the Stars – The Beginnings of the Zodiac
Alongside Nefertiti, the Neues Museum is showing a selection of ancient objects revealing the complex origins of star signs and horoscopes, first systematised by the Babylonians around 410 BC. It’s not the most thrilling of exhibitions (there’s tragically little for those wanting to find out if their love life is about to improve), but there are some stunning Egyptian amulets, beautifully carved in stone and bronze, carried for protection like mini-portable hieroglyphics.
- Through Jan 10, Neues Museum, details
THROUGH FEB 28
[ materialistin ]: Matter of Care, Care of Matter
[ materialistin ] is the name of a Leipzig-based group of women artists who work with sculpture in an expanded sense and who engage with materiality and corporality in an experimental way. The group exhibition at Hamburger Bahnhof curated by Sam Bardouil shows works by the artists Laura Eckert, Enne Haehnle, Elisabeth Howey, Lucy König, Agnes Lammert, Wibke Rahn, Theresa Rothe, and Sophie Uchman, foregrounding social and cultural-political questions arising from the artists’ collective practice and solidarity.
- Through Feb 28, Hamburger Bahnhof, details
THROUGH APR 30
Fractured Lifeworlds
Fractured Lifeworlds confronts Germany’s colonial genocide against the Ovaherero and Nama peoples in Namibia. Although formally recognised in 2021, the genocide remains poorly understood in Germany. For the past four years, organisations Forensis and Forensic Architecture have been working closely with Namibian partner communities, documenting sites of colonial violence through local testimony, satellite imagery and historical records. With its mix of contemporary artworks, forensic research and testimony from affected communities and descendants, the exhibition is a difficult, often upsetting encounter that serves as a way to draw visitors directly into Germany’s unfinished colonial reckoning.
- Through Apr 30, Spore Initiative, details
ONGOING
A Thousand Times Berlin
© Courtesy of the artists / Photo: Jacopo La Forgia
On the occasion of the museum’s 30th anniversary, the Hamburger Bahnhof is showing a new collection presentation in its west wing. The title A Thousand Times Berlin indicates the exhibition’s focus on the multiplicity of artists shaping the city. This large-scale exhibition with more than 70 works by over 50 artists includes both new acquisitions and works from the collection that have rarely or never been shown before.
- Ongoing, Hamburger Bahnhof, details
Boros Collection #5
The newest presentation at the Boros Collection includes works by renowned contemporary artists such as Ed Atkins, Sung Tieu, Cyprien Gaillard, Klára Hosnedlová, Mire Lee and Klara Lidén. This extensive private collection is made open to the public through presentation in a World War 2 bunker and former night club. Visitors to the exhibition are required to book a guided tour in advance.
- Since May 3, Boros Collection, details
Museum in Motion
Hamburger Bahnhof re-opens its Rieckhallen with ‘Museum in Motion’, a dynamic showcase of contemporary art reflecting the evolving role of museums. Featuring large-scale installations by renowned artists like Cevdet Erek and Elmgreen & Dragset, the exhibition explores how museums must adapt to a rapidly changing world. Alongside ‘Nationalgalerie: A Collection for the 21st Century’, the exhibition offers a fresh perspective on Hamburger Bahnhof’s extensive holdings.
- Since 2024, Hamburger Bahnhof, details
Joseph Beuys
One of the most influential figures in Modern art, Joseph Beuyes is being celebrated with a large-scale new exhibition at the Hamburger Bahnhof. Made up of around 15 works, including important installations like Tram Stop: A monument to the future (1976) and Das Kapital Raum, 1970-1977 (1980), the exhibition showcases the complex life and work of Beuys.
- Since 2024, Hamburger Bahnhof, details
