By Sarah Wilson
Unless you’re brave, (or slightly out of your mind) the weekends spent sipping beers in Görlitzer Park are well and truly behind us. But the colder months do bring lots of opportunities for gallery-visiting, so we’ve rounded up our favourites for the coming month for you to check out. And as always, our selections focus largely on the most exciting upcoming work from female and non-binary artists and curators:
Valérie Favre: “Die Ruhe der Seelenruhe”
Galerie Barbara Thumm, 10/11/2018 – 16/02/2019
From Switzerland but now living and working in Berlin, Valérie Favre’s most recent paintings explore the themes of authority and aura of the artist in society, as well as the traditional assignment of gender roles. At the heart of her imagery lies “the comédie tragédie of human existence, graspable in myths, saturated with literature, philosophy, film and art history”. This will be her fourth solo exhibition with Galerie Barbara Thumm, and will be on show until February 2019.
No admission fee listed on website
Natalie Czech, Miriam Thomann: “Meeting with the other as such, but still”
Bärenzwinger im Köllnischen Park, 16/11/2018 – 20/01/2019
Ever been to an exhibition in a former bear enclosure? Well now’s your chance. “Meeting with the other as such, but still” features work from Natalie Czech and Miriam Thomann which explores the possibilities of this new space, and the concept of space in general. Thomann presents a sculptural series under the title “Little Life”, while Czech’s “Negative Calligrammes” focuses on the relationship between image and writing.
Admission: free
Maria Lassnig: “Augensprache. Works on Paper 1974 – 2013”
Captain Petzel, 17/11/2018 – 05/01/2019
The first female artist to win the Grand Austrian State Prize in 1988, Maria Lassnig is best known for her self-portraits and focus on the idea of “body awareness” and sensation. In an essay by Jennifer Higgie, her art was described as a struggle between two different worlds: “the surface (of the skin, of the painting, of paint), and the inner world (of the painter, of the person looking at the painting). The artist is at once herself, the body she inhabits, and the subject of her own creativity”.
No admission listed on website
Raphaela Vogel: “Son of a Witch”
Berlinische Galerie, 30/11/2018 – 11/03/2019
As part of a festival to mark the 10th anniversary of “Videoart at Midnight”, the Berlinische Galerie will be exhibiting Raphaela Vogel’s video sculptures, which, as a Freize feature described them, attempt to “construct spaces for inquiry and appropriation: settings where drones become actors, goatskins bear an image … and where the video projector itself becomes anthropomorphic. Vogel is the protagonist of her videos: both subject and object of observation”. This exhibition at the Berlinische promises an “experience of everything turned on its head”, both in the films and the exhibition space.
Berlin & her places 