Art exhibitions to see in Berlin this autumn 2024

Berlin is brimming with exciting exhibitions for those visiting the city. Whether you're heading to the German capital for the UK's August bank holiday or exploring during Berlin Art Week from 11-15 September 2024, there's something for everyone. From a retrospective on Berlin in the 1990s to exhibitions featuring Frans Hals and Galli—showcases you might have missed in London—here's a glimpse at some of the fantastic exhibitions that make Berlin a must-visit destination.

Berlin, Berlin: 20 Years of the Helmut Newton Foundation

Wim Wenders Stiftung. Wings of Desire, Berlin 1987. Outside/Day – Gedächtniskirche, Bruno Ganz. © Wim Wenders Stiftung, Argos Films / Courtesy Johanna Breede.

#FLODown: To celebrate its 20th anniversary in June 2024, the Helmut Newton Foundation presents Berlin, Berlin, a group exhibition honouring Newton’s hometown. The show features both iconic and lesser-known images of Berlin by Newton, along with photographs of his early inspirations. Newton, who fled Berlin in 1938 due to Nazi threats, returned in 2003 to establish the foundation in the former Landwehrkasino at Zoologischer Garten train station, where his archive was relocated.

Date: 7 June 2024 - 25 February 2025. Location: Museum of Photography - Helmut Newton Foundation, Jebensstraße 2, 10623 Berlin, Germany. Price: 12 EUR.  helmut-newton-foundation.org.

Alexandra Pirici and Nama Tsbar at Hamburger Bahnhof

Installation view. Alexandra Pirici.Attune, 2024. Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart, 2024. Courtesy of the artist, Hamburger Bahnhof and Audemars Piguet / Photo: Edi Constantin. 

#FLODown: Alexandra Pirici's Attune and Naama Tsabar's Estuaries are both on display at Hamburger Bahnhof. Pirici's Attune, featured in the Historic Hall, is a site-specific installation that melds sculptural elements, live action, and music to explore the interplay between human and non-human entities. Meanwhile, Tsabar's Estuaries presents interactive art pieces that double as sculptures and musical instruments, inviting audience engagement. This exhibition also includes performances with Berlin and New York musicians, and it engages with Joseph Beuys' work, celebrating feminist and queer perspectives through participatory art.

Date: Alexandra Pirici: Attune  until 6 October 2024; Naama Tsabar: Estuaries until 22 September 2024. Locations: Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum für Gegenwart, Invalidenstraße 51, 10557 Berlin-Tiergarten. Price: 14 EUR. hamburger-bahnhof.

Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley: The Soul Station

Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley, YOU CAN'T HIDE ANYTHING, 2024. Commissioned by LAS Art Foundation. Courtesy the artist; LAS Art Foundation. © Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley.

#FLODown: LAS Art Foundation is currently showcasing The Soul Station, Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley's first solo exhibition in Germany, at Halle am Berghain. The exhibition features a newly commissioned work, You Can't Hide Anything, alongside a retrospective of Brathwaite-Shirley's video games from the past five years. Inspired by early 2000s video games, You Can't Hide Anything explores a post-revolutionary society. Visitors interact using 'Soul Cards' at designated 'Soul Stations', influencing the game's outcome while reflecting on their own perceptions and biases. The second episode of this work will premiere on 12 September during Berlin Art Week.

Date: until 13 October 2024. Location: Halle am Wriezener Bahnhof, Am Wriezener Bahnhof, 10243 Berlin-Friedrichshain. Price: 16 EUR. berghain.berlin/en.

Luis Roque: Estufa

Luiz Roque, White Year, Video still, 2013. Performer: Glamour Garcia. Courtesy of the artist and Mendes Wood DM, São Paulo/Brussels/Paris/New York © the artist.

#FLODown: Estufa is the first mid-career survey of Brazilian artist Luiz Roque at KW - Institute for Contemporary Art. Roque’s work fuses expanded cinema, visual art, and critical theory, blending modernist legacies, pop culture, queer politics, and science fiction into his timeless montages and speculative videos. His sculptural video installations skillfully balance form, colour, and content, fostering a dialogue between architecture and art while preserving their individual qualities.

Date: 6 July – 20 October 2024. Location: KW - Institute for Contemporary Art Auguststraße 69, 10117 Berlin-Mitte. Price: 10 EUR. kw-berlin.de. 

Galli: See How You Get On

© Courtesy the artist. © Edeltrud Veidt.

#FLODown:  Although Londoners may have missed out on a Galli exhibition due to its postponement at Goldsmiths CCA, you can still see it in Berlin until October. See How You Get On, on display at PalaisPopulaire, features around fifty works from 1985 to 2015, including rare artists' books, drawings, and paintings from Galli’s most prolific years.

Date: 16 July - 6 October 2024. Location: PalaisPopulaire, Unter den Linden 5, Mitte. Price: 5 EUR. palaispopulaire.db.com.

Akinbode Akinbiyi: Being, Seeing, Wandering

Akinbode Akinbiyi, Wedding, Berlin, 2005, Aus der Serie: “African Quarter“, seit den 1990er Jahren. © Akinbode Akinbiyi

#FLODown: Akinbode Akinbiyi, the 2024 Hannah Höch Prize winner, is being celebrated with his first solo exhibition in a German museum at the Berlinische Galerie. The show features around 120 photographs spanning five decades, including two series debuting in Germany. Akinbiyi, a renowned photographer based in Berlin since 1991, captures the life of megacities like Berlin, Brasília, and Lagos through spontaneous, analogue black-and-white images. His work addresses themes of cultural change, social exclusion, and the impact of colonialism.

Date: 8 June - 14 October 2024. Location: Berlinische Galerie, Alte Jakobstraße 124 – 128 10969 Berlin. Price: 10 EUR. berlinischegalerie.de.

Frans Hals: Master of the Fleeting Moment

Frans Hals, Der Lautenspieler, um 1623/24, Paris, Musée du Louvre Photo, © RMN-Grand Palais (Musée du Louvre) / Franck Raux.

#FLODown: If you missed the Frans Hals exhibition at London’s National Gallery, you have another chance to see it at the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin. Hals, regarded as one of history's greatest portraitists, is celebrated for his lively and character-rich depictions of Haarlem’s citizens, genre figures, and social outsiders. His innovative style, featuring loose, bold brushstrokes, influenced many 19th-century painters, particularly the Impressionists. The Berlin exhibition showcases around 50 of Hals' most significant works, alongside pieces by his Haarlem contemporaries, highlighting Hals' impact on the evolution of European painting. Click here for our review of Frans Hals at the National Gallery in London. 

Date:  12 July - 3 November 2024. Location: Gemäldegalerie, Matthäikirchplatz 4, 10785 Berlin-Tiergarten. Price: 16 EUR. smb.museum/museen-einrichtungen/gemaeldegalerie.

Upcoming

Dream On—Berlin, the 90s

At the fringe of the Love Parade, Berlin, 1997 © Annette Hauschild/OSTKREUZ

#FLODown: The exhibition Dream On—Berlin, the 90s at C/O Berlin will showcase over 200 works by nine members of the OSTKREUZ photo agency, celebrating its 35th anniversary. This display will include both previously unpublished and well-known photographs, illustrating Berlin’s transformative decade. Following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, Berlin found itself at a crossroads, balancing between optimism and apprehension. The 1990s saw the city emerge as a centre of subcultures and dynamic initiatives amidst ongoing debates about its development. The OSTKREUZ photographers, originating from former East Berlin, documented these changes, capturing the essence of the city's evolution and its new role as Germany's capital. Their work provides valuable insights into the societal shifts and challenges of reunification.

Date: 14 September 2024 - 23 January 2025. Location: C/O Berlin in Amerika Haus on Hardenbergstraße, 22–24, 10623 Berlin. Price: 12 EUR. museumsportal-berlin.de.