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Berlin began for me (Paul Luckraft, Senior Curator, Zabludowicz Collection) catching the end of the Friday evening openings. Diamond Stingily had installed a series of mirrors with printed images at Isabella Bortolozzi. In the show text Stingily writes about the sensation of spending time in mirrors and sometimes getting stuck in them. Some of pieces elegantly blended into the wood-panelled rooms, others stood out with more personality
The paintings of Kévin Bray next door at Future Gallery were definitely teeming with life, while also precise and assured. A French artist based in Amsterdam, this was the first time I'd come across his work
HUA International had a raucous and engaging group show 'My eyes like shovels' curated by Gigiotto del Vecchio. It included an installation of glazed tiles, candles and a mannequin figure by Collection artist Liz Craft
And some live music on the staircase by artist and techno-producer Franziska Lantz, who was also exhibiting
The next morning I popped to the offices of publisher DISTANZ for a launch of their new Sigmar Polke title, and to say hello to the team we are working with on the upcoming LuYang NetiNeti book, due out this summer!
At Societe, Timur Si-Qin had produced a beguiling installation of digital photography, painting, 3D printed digital-pixel pools. All the elements derive from a simulated landscape the artist has built, inspired by a remote area of Vermont
More brilliant artists from the Collection featured in the group show 'In Defense of Symbolic Value' at Galerie Max Hetzler. Curated by Isabelle Graw it questioned what it means for art to increasingly 'circulate between luxury resorts and digital bubbles'. Great to see intriguing pieces by Avery Singer, Albert Oehlen and SoiL Thornton in particular
At Nagel Draxler, Theo Triantafyllidis gave us a tour of the first prototype of his new multiplayer game Feral Metaverse. A quartet of players are dropped into a desert-like digital landscape as naked avatars. You can scurry, scream and sometimes collaborate on futile tasks!
We came across a Raphaela Vogel installation of sculptural elephants and a musical organ on a patch of grass near the Volksbuhne theatre. But unfortunately we missed the artist playing the tango, which we read about later!
In the evening we saw a multimedia performance by Anan Fries at HAU3. The narrative centred on an extinct breed of carrier pigeon. Most impressive were the devices that linked the dancers' movements in real time to the projected imagery
Sunday brought a detour to institutional shows. Christina Quarles, whose stunning work from the collection graces the cover of our The Stand-Ins publication, had a solo at Hamburger Bahnhof. New paintings and a wallpaper installation were displayed in relation to gauze panels dividing spaces and corners, and it also featured works by other artists from the Nationalgalerie Collection
Martin Wong at KW was a revelation. Brilliantly designed, it gave a strong sense of personality and social history, while letting the works shine
Then it was a last dash round some remaining shows. At Neu Gallery, Yngve Holen had made huge metal sculptures covered in soft flock, based on 5G rooftop masts
Cao Fei at Sprueth Magers was a major show, with a large crowd exploring it! It included video interviews of people reflecting on what the metaverse could mean for them, plus a revisiting of the artists pioneering virtual reality work RMB City (2007-11) which housed her first avatar, China Tracy
Finally it was a visit to Galerie Noah Klink to see 2018 Invites artist Josefine Reisch's show. Here is Noah with the gold curtains
Josefine's installation and beautiful layered paintings explore wealth, status and commerce in relation to German history. Fine tablecloths are used as canvas, overlaid with tiaras and logos of GDR era state-supported companies
