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BRITTA THIE
10 Must-See Shows at Gallery Weekend Berlin 2023
Artsy

24.04.2023

By Josie Thaddeus-Johns

There’s no escaping it: Berlin’s art scene is entering a new era. After all, the German capital has finally opened its revamped Neue Nationalgalerie with influential curator Klaus Biesenbach at the helm; global photography museum Fotografiska is about to launch its new cultural center in the former art squat Tacheles; and there’s even (gasp) a new airport to welcome global visitors.

With the 19th Gallery Weekend Berlin taking place from April 28th through 30th, what can we expect from the 55 galleries taking part across the city? Well, a bit of everything.

Gallery crawlers can find daring, experimental work in time-based media like Loretta Fahrenholz’s solo film works at Fluentum, “Trash The Musical,” and Hito Steyerl’s computer-generated video installation at Esther Schipper. On the other hand, there’s also sculptural, abstract impasto paintings by Jason Martin at Buchmann, and existential paintings from Raphaela Simon at Galerie Max Hetzler. And, indeed, everything in between.

Here, we round up the 10 standout shows of this year’s Berlin Gallery Weekend.

Over the last few years, young German artist Britta Thie made new friends through her job working as an actor. These sources of companionship, however, aren’t humans, but rather the behind-the-scenes technical equipment that is needed on a film set. In a new show of paintings at Wentrup, Thie portrays tripods, lighting rigs, and cable setups in minute photorealistic detail. Having also previously made video works as a director, often exploring the ways that the internet seeps into our material reality to impose a kind of delusion, Thie’s new works continue the artist’s interest in world-building through screens.