Right now, Berlin’s gallery scene is giving the capital’s museums a run for their money with a stellar array of exhibitions, from the defiant woven art of Sheila Hicks at Meyer Riegger to the haunting, childhood-inspired installations of Diamond Stingily at Galerie Bortolozzi. This sudden uplift in quality can in part be explained by April’s competitive Gallery Weekend, but the main reason is that Berlin’s museums are prioritising exhibitions from big-name artists in an endless loop of bankable exhibitions.
How else to explain the second Gerhard Richter exhibition in as many years at the Neue Nationalgalerie? Gerhard Richter: 100 Works for Berlin celebrates the permanent loan of 100 paintings, but coming so soon after an exhibition dedicated to his artist books is a baffling decision by the programmers.
The previous show was a focused, insightful examination of his printed works, whereas the latest crams a hodgepodge of paintings into the same small rectangular room downstairs. It feels hemmed in and truncated. Acknowledging the lack of space, they’ve placed large mirrors opposite his unsettling Birkenau Series – paintings based on secretly-taken extermination camp photographs – but rather than adding “another level of reflection”, as the curators claim, it comes across as a cheap interior design trick to make the room feel more spacious.
Berlin’s museums are prioritising exhibitions from big-name artists in an endless loop
There’s no denying that the Dresden-born artist enjoys a unique position in Germany’s postwar psyche, but to spotlight a single artist to this extent is excessive. More than anything, it’s a missed opportunity to give these works the consideration (and space!) they deserve. And to make matters worse, the show will be kept up until 2026.
At a time when inflation and the cost of living are having an unprecedented effect on daily life, Hito Steyerl’s mockumentary about uncontrollable capitalist market forces at Esther Schipper is exceedingly topical. This is the first time Animal Spirits has been shown in Germany since the artist famously withdrew the work from Kassel’s documenta 15 over their handling of antisemitism charges. Such accusations have been on the rise in recent months, as violence escalates over Israel-Palestine and solidarity for the Palestinians gets confused with antisemitism. In most instances, this is too hot a topic for the city’s institutions and museums to tackle.
Galleries, on the other hand, can provide a free and open space for debate. That’s certainly the case at Barbara Wien Gallery, which is showing the Iraqi-American artist Michael Rakowitz’s project, I’m good at love, I’m good at hate, it’s in between I freeze.
Centring on an unrealised Leonard Cohen concert in Ramallah, Palestine, his film work has been beset by problems, with the musician’s management accusing the film of presenting a “pro-Palestinian” account and withholding the rights to Cohen’s songs. To get around it, the artist is playing an edited version with arguably more emotional impact. Meanwhile, Gropius Bau is showing two exhibitions on the legacy of migration and colonialism. They’re dreamy and, at times, deeply moving exhibitions, but it is well-trodden ground for the institution and by now, after a series of similarly engaged exhibitions, fairly safe critical ground.
It comes across as a cheap interior design trick to make the room feel more spacious
Also, beware woolly group shows like Schinkel Pavillon’s Human Is. An impressive selection of artists mashed together in a world-building sci-fi is a premise that’s wearing a bit thin – all biomorphic alien forms and wacky film props with an edition of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein on a shelf to give it some validity. It’s a formula working well for the often excellent Schinkel, attracting a young designer crowd, but if you want to see some truly visionary media artwork, head down to Sprüth Magers to see Duotopia by Cao Fei, a dizzying descent into the metaverse from the celebrated Chinese artist.
With the focus now firmly on the commercial sector, every gallery and project space in Berlin is worth a visit, and though the work might be beyond your budget, entry to the commercial galleries is free.
