Frank Nitsche
Frank Nitsche - Drops
Until 14 June
Max Hetzler
Zimmerstrasse 90/91
T +49 (0)30/229 2437
www.maxhetzler.com
Great queasy canvases by Berlin-based Frank Nitsche. Slick, grim, pastel and contemporary, these paintings still manage to be awe-inspiring in a very old-fashioned way. The work is absent offigurative references - the exception, one terrifying cartoon bunny a la Donnie Darko.
Martin Assig
Martin Assig - Westwerk Havelhaus
Until 7 June
Galerie Volker Diehl
Lindenstrasse 35
T +49 (0)30/22487922
www.galerievolkerdiehl.com
Hard to say whether the work shown in observance of Gallery Weekend Berlin this year strives on the whole for higher-than-standard quality, or is just more comestible. Either way, Assig's "auratic house objects" - architectural models gone incognito in colored wax - are certainly fun to look at.
Tal R
Tal R - Adieu Interessant
Until 14 June
CFA (Contemporary Fine Arts)
Am Kupfergraben 10
T +49-30-288 787 0
www.cfa-berlin.com
Exhibit B: the psychedelic painting-collages of Israeli artist Tal R. Also a lot of fun. In Red, Green, Blue and Magenta.
Tomas Schmit
Tomas Schmit
Until 20 August
Babara Wien
Linienstrasse 158 im Hof
T+49 (0)30 28 38 53 52
www.barbarawien.de
Small works (about 40) by Fluxus' Tomas Schmit. Schmit industriously illustrated and diagrammed whatever thoughts had the luck to cross his mind until his death in 2006. The drawings are like candy.
David Claerbout
David Claerbout
Until 7 June
Johnen Galerie
Schillingstr 31
T +49 (0)30 27 58 30 30
www.johnengalerie.de
Claerbout's projected works 'The Long Goodbye' and 'A Happy Moment' are neither video nor still photography; they experiment, in separate ways, with protraction. The former manipulates a woman's gesture so that it runs in cinematic slow motion, but appears to take the length of a day. In 'A Happy Moment', the artist used hundreds of cameras simultaneously to capture one scene, and then shows the various aspects sequentially; which may be a new way of doing painting.
Nobody Puts a Baby in the Corner
Until 7 June
Isabella Bortolozzi
Schöneberger Ufer 61
10785 Berlin, Germany
T +49 (0)30 2639 4985
www.bortolozzi.com
The group show, which Isabella Bortolizzi has curated in her newly located gallery, includes work by Jim Shaw, Stephen G Rhodes, Barry Johnston, Aaron Curry and Thomas Houseago.
Ettore Sottsass
Ettore Sottsass - In Everything there is the Ghost of Sex, curated by Lili Reynaud-Dewar
Until 18 May
Schinkel Pavilion
Oberwallstrasse 1
www.berlinbiennale.de
The 1825 Schinkel Pavilion is a small octagonal annex, peculiarly grandiose and faux-neoclassical, all but hidden in the centre of Berlin. It has been given over to five artist-curated shows under the auspices of the Berlin Biennial. The first two did a good job at inhabiting the space, but Lili Reynaud-Dewar's is the first willing to be possessed by it. Her pick is Ettore Sottsass, the Italian designer - also, on the curator's read, a mystic.
Carsten Nicolai
Carsten Nicolai - Tired Light
Until 28 June
Eigen and Art
Auguststrasse 26
T +49 (0)30 280 6605
www.eigen-art.com
Carsten Nicolai, whose "world looks more like a laboratory," presents two projects inspired by scientific forays of the past. The work consists in two wall-hanging plates in homage to the once-promising theory of "Tired Light, and a handful of sculptures illustrating a Bucky Fuller experiment (id est, ping-pong balls inside balloons, cast in slick metal). A monumental lightbox the color of an electric heater halves the gallery, repels visitors and holds the show together.
Felix Wunderlich
Felix Wunderlich
Until 24 May
Kunstagenten
Linienstrasse 155
T +49 30 69504142
www.kunstagenten.de
Wunderlich's images gratify like illustrations out of a children's book on postmodernism.
Joel Sternfeld
Joel Sternfeld - Geography of No Place: American Utopias
Until 21 June
Buchmann Galerie
Charlottenstrasse 13
T +49 30 258 999 29
www.buchmanngalerie.com
American photographer Joel Sternfeld shows for the first time in Germany.
Alix Rule writes on art and politics. She has worked for In These Times and Dissent magazine, and her writing has appeared in a variety of other publications. Alix grew up in New York and studied at the University of Chicago at then at Balliol College, Oxford. After graduating she worked briefly as an organizer of low-wage workers in London, UK. Alix is interested in interior and outer space, organizing communities, "social entrepreneurship" and above all, clothing. She has recently moved to Berlin. You can contact her at alix.rule@gmail.com.
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