Gallery Weekend Berlin 202530 Images
Gallery Weekend Berlin returns for its 21st edition from May 2-4, 2025, uniting 52 galleries across 61 locations throughout the German capital. With over 80 exhibitions on view, the weekend presents an exciting mix of emerging and established artists from more than 20 countries, offering a window into the dynamic scene of contemporary art today. Backdropped by a city with relentless creative energy, the weekend invites visitors to traverse Berlin’s layered neighbourhoods, from the industrial edges of Kreuzberg to the quietude of Charlottenburg.
This year’s edition introduces several notable developments, including a posthumous exhibition of Frank Auerbach at Galerie Michael Werner. Titled Frank Auerbach in Berlin, it marks his first show in the city of his birth, featuring up to 30 works, including his final self-portraits and paintings of his wife, Julia. This exhibition is a sentimental homecoming for the artist, who left Berlin as a child during Nazi persecution. Across town, Galerie Guido W. Baudach presents Tokyo-based artist Hinako Miyabayashi’s first solo exhibition with the gallery, showcasing her new paintings that explore the tactile relationship between the artist and materials.
In Charlottenburg, Galerie Buchholz unveils Cold Hope, a new series of large-format paintings by Anne Imhof. Drawn from stills of coming-of-age films, the images are fractured and reassembled, passing through stages of translation to leave behind dreamlike impressions.
Just around the corner, Société presents Leda Was a Swan, a darker, surreal installation by Marianna Simnett. Here, ancient mythology is explored within the confines of intimacy through video and painting. Swans, bodies, and boundaries converge in a psychological labyrinth that probes the depths of desire, control, and vulnerability. Nearby at Crone, Anthony Goicolea’s Double Standard captures private moments in suspended time. His painted figures linger in ambiguous spaces that are caught in emotional in-betweens.
In Mitte, Nagel Draxler presents Isolation Cell, a powerful installation by Nadya Tolokonnikova, which sees a reconstruction of the artist’s own prison cell. Her work is informed by her harrowing experiences in a Russian penal colony, speaks to the violence of confinement and the resilience of the human spirit. Alongside it, Tolokonnikova’s Prison Letters and PUNK’S NOT DEAD series deepen the exploration of political liberation.
Over in Kreuzberg, Puppies Puppies (Jade Guanaro Kuriki-Olivo) at Trautwein Herleth creates a dialogue between minimalism, pop art and Grindr. Through their unique lens, digital relationships and identity politics come together, creating a commentary on our increasingly mediated existences. The work fits somewhere between personal and universal, inviting viewers to confront the complexities of modern communication and self-representation. At Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler, Klaudia Schifferle’s Play the Red Line offers a visual score that bleeds figuration and abstraction. The artist’s dynamic composition responds to the shifting rhythms of human interaction and emotional tension. The work captures the sense of play and tension, exploring how line and form can land the delicate balance between control and release.
In Schöneberg, Molitor presents Diane Severin Nguyen’s Metamorphosis, traversing photography, video, and material transformation. The artist’s debut at the gallery invites viewers into an alchemical process of light and texture intertwined to reflect the fluidity of identity. For their first participation at Gallery Weekend Berlin, NOME presents Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley’s immersive solo show, confronting themes of identity, misrepresentation, and discomfort. With a mix of animation, painting, sound, and performance, the artist welcomes visitors to experience a world that subverts narratives surrounding marginalised communities.
KOW presents a powerful retrospective of Brazilian artist Hudinilson Jr., a vital figure in Latin American art. His works, which are deeply rooted in exploring identity and the body, offer a meditation on desire and intimacy. Through experimental visual language, Hudinilson Jr. forces us to reconsider both self-perception and external observation by creating a space where the private and public selves exist in tension. Also, at ChertLüdde, Álvaro Urbano brings the theme of Tiergarten Cruising into the gallery with an installation inspired by the hidden botanical world of Berlin’s Tiergarten. Urbano’s work meticulously recreates plants from this secluded area, offering a subtle commentary on the intersection of nature and urban space.
Finally, Galerie Bastian presents Nearby and Far Away, a photography exhibition by German filmmaker Wim Wenders. His new photographs capture unknown landscapes of modern China, offering an exploration of the country’s evolving geography. The second part of the exhibition features images reminiscent of German Romanticism, with magical light phenomena from the forest – a place once referred to as the “cathedral of the Germans,” where the young Goethe wrote the two poems titled “Wanderer’s Night Song”.
While continuing to spotlight the work of local talent, Gallery Weekend Berlin will also platform the international artists and galleries that call Berlin home, reinforcing the city’s role as a nucleus of creativity. Visit the gallery above for a closer look at some of the work on display.
Gallery Weekend Berlin runs from 2–4 May 2025 at galleries across the city. Take a look here for the full listings.
