Gallery Weekend Berlin 2026 features over 50 galleries across the city, with a strong emphasis on painting. The event, founded in 2005 by a cooperative of local gallerists as an alternative to traditional art fairs, this year confirms the lasting power of painting despite its original anti-painting ethos.
10 mostre da vedere a Berlino in questa primavera 2026
Artribune's article highlights ten must-see exhibitions in Berlin for spring 2026, curated by Nicola Violano. Key shows include Marina Abramović's "Balkan Erotic Epic" at Gropius Bau, exploring Balkan ritual, body, and sexuality; Giulia Andreani's "Sabotage" at the Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart, which uses near-monochrome painting to critique historical narratives; and Shilpa Gupta's "What Still Holds" at the same venue, reflecting on borders and fragility in dialogue with Joseph Beuys. The selection spans major museums and galleries, emphasizing conceptual depth over pure aesthetics.
Artsy has published a list of 11 must-see museum exhibitions scheduled for 2026, highlighting major retrospectives and biennials. The article opens by reflecting on 2025's trend of amplifying marginalized voices, citing exhibitions like "Paris Noir" at the Centre Pompidou and the Turner Prize win of neurodivergent artist Nnena Kalu. For 2026, the piece notes a shift toward large-scale retrospectives of established figures, including Tracey Emin's "A Second Life" at Tate Modern and "Raphael: Sublime Poetry" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, alongside major biennials such as the 61st Venice Biennale, the 18th Lyon Biennale, and the 16th Gwangju Biennale.
"Gemeinsames Basteln, Anfassen und Hinlegen"
Christie's in New York achieved record auction results, with Jackson Pollock's "Number 7A, 1948" selling for $181.2 million and Constantin Brâncuși's bronze sculpture "Danaïde" reaching $107.6 million, both from the S. I. Newhouse collection. Meanwhile, critic Gesine Borcherdt published a scathing review of the Marina Abramović exhibition "Balkan Erotic Epic" at Gropius Bau Berlin, arguing that museums increasingly demand audience participation—crafting, touching, lying down—under the guise of democracy, which she likens to group therapy and warns carries authoritarian tendencies. In London, makeup artist and designer Isamaya Ffrench opened a hybrid gallery and concept store called Studio Iron, featuring works by Abramović, Paul McCarthy, Kelly Wearstler, and Anne Imhof, aiming to blur boundaries between art, design, and function.
Marina Abramović has opened a major solo exhibition, "Balkan Erotic Epic. The Exhibition," at Berlin's Gropius Bau, marking her first solo show in the city since the 1990s. The expansive presentation features historical and recent works across film, installation, sculpture, and live performance, focusing on themes of ritual, eroticism, death, and the body as a site of political and spiritual intensity. The opening included a live performance by Svetlana Spajić and a video work, Tito’s Funeral (2025).
Marina Abramović Is the Unlikely Star of the New Balloon Museum
Performance artist Marina Abramović has created a large-scale inflatable installation for the new permanent New York outpost of the Balloon Museum. Titled *Snowy/Windy/Spring On The Planet Z*, the immersive work transforms the Tin Building into an imagined extraterrestrial meadow filled with balloon sculptures, light, and air currents, opening in July 2026.
In a podcast interview with Louis Theroux, Marina Abramović revealed that curator Klaus Biesenbach was initially skeptical of her landmark 2010 performance "The Artist Is Present" at MoMA. Biesenbach, then chief curator at large at the Museum of Modern Art, had invited Abramović for the institution's first performance art retrospective, proposing the title "The Artist Is Present." When Abramović suggested sitting silently in the museum's atrium every day for three months, Biesenbach reportedly called the idea "ridiculous," predicting no one would participate. Despite his doubts, the performance drew some 1,500 visitors, with one person sitting for an entire day, and became a defining moment in 21st-century art.
Lisson Gallery is promoting the participation of its roster of artists in the 61st Venice Biennale and other concurrent exhibitions in Venice. The gallery's announcement highlights major presentations by artists like Anish Kapoor, Otobong Nkanga, and Ding Yi at various venues throughout the city.
Monopol magazine is giving away 5 × 2 tickets to Marina Abramović's exhibition "Balkan Erotic Epic" at the Gropius Bau in Berlin. The show, which opened in 2025, explores erotic energy through Balkan myths, rituals, and folklore, combining new video works with historical pieces from the 1970s onward, including installations, sculptures, and live performances.
The Gropius Bau in Berlin has extended its evening opening hours by one hour, now open until 8 PM (closed Tuesdays), due to high demand for its exhibition of performance artist Marina Abramović. The show, titled "Balkan Erotic Epic," opened two weeks ago and drew long queues from the start. It features both new and older works, including performances where Abramović carved a star into her abdomen or lay in a burning installation until losing consciousness. The exhibition explores eroticism, politics, Balkan folklore, sexual energy, death, the political dimension of the body, and the Yugoslav wars.
Marina Abramović presents her first major exhibition in Berlin since the 1990s at Gropius Bau, titled "Balkan Erotic Epic. The Exhibition." The show juxtaposes historic works from the 1970s with new video installations, exploring how the artist uses the body as a vital force to confront political systems, histories, and mythologies of the Balkan countries.
The Park Avenue Armory in New York has announced its 2026 program, headlined by the US premiere of Marina Abramović's provocative performance piece "Balkan Erotic Epic" on December 8. The four-hour work, centered on nude fertility rituals rooted in Balkan traditions, will be joined by other multidisciplinary works including Céleste Boursier-Mougenot's sound installation "clinamen," Steve Reich's "Music for 18 Musicians" conducted by Alan Pierson, a Simon Stone production of "The Cherry Orchard" set in modern-day Seoul, and a Benjamin Millepied dance piece based on Romeo and Juliet. All performances will take place in the Armory's Drill Hall.
Marina Abramović has unveiled a new immersive work titled THE BUS at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, running until 23 January. The piece, part mobile sculpture and part meditation capsule, invites world leaders and participants to step away from the forum's intense schedule for a digital detox and inner reflection using the Abramović Method. The project was curated by Mirjam Varadinis, curator-at-large at the Kunsthaus Zürich, and developed through Abramović's institute (MAI). It marks Abramović's debut at the WEF, which this year also features eco-artist Thijs Biersteker, multimedia artist Ronen Tanchum, and street artist JR.