Art Karlsruhe 2026
Art Karlsruhe 2026
4. bis 8. Februar
We present works by
Hjördis Baacke
Moritz Götze
Hiroyuki Masuyama
Dana Meyer
Nguyen Xuan Huy
Hans-Christian Schink
Thitz
You can find a preview of our program below.
In 2010, photographer Hans-Christian Schink embarked on a trip around the world, spending two weeks in Antarctica. The pictures he took there with an analog camera are full of devotion to the monumental and elemental nature of the landscape. Schink's large-format landscapes appear so sober, so pure, and so grandiose in their silence and vastness that they take your breath away.
(From a text by Katrin Bettina Müller)
In 2025, Nguyen Xuan Huy created his painting “Mission Phoenix.” We are exhibiting it for the first time in Karlsruhe. In ancient Greece and Egypt, the phoenix was considered a legendary eagle-like bird that burst into flames at the end of its long life and left behind an egg in the ashes, from which it hatched again. The peacock-like mythical creature Fenghuang, associated with fire, is referred to as the “Chinese phoenix.”
Nguyen Xuan Huy layers the different aspects of the phoenix concept into a monumental painting with numerous allusions: the Nike of Samothrace, a sculpture now kept in the Louvre, represents ancient Greece, while charred roof beams are reminiscent of the devastating fire at Notre-Dame de Paris in 2019.
For painter, illustrator, sculptor, and photographer Hiroyuki Masuyama, time travel is more than just a fictional possibility. It brings him into contact with fellow artists from the past and with exhibition guests from the future.
Masuyama particularly enjoys visiting the era of European Romanticism. Using hundreds of photographs, he recomposes the works of the great masters and allows us to experience their fascination anew in a contemporary form. He encounters Joseph Mallord William Turner in Venice, Rome, and London. He appears in Caspar David Friedrich's metaphysical worldviews.
Moritz Götze is one of the most important pop art artists of our time. His warm-hearted and alert works enchant viewers with their unique aura.
He is currently embarking on a new series of large-scale works. “At my age,” says Moritz Götze (born 1964), “it's time to start exploring myths.” Myth (ancient Greek: narrative) links human existence with the world of gods, spirits, and supernatural forces. The artist combines retrospection with prophecy and erects beacons on the shores of the present to guide the course toward the future.
Shopping bags are both a reflection of our culture and cultural artifacts. Thitz recycles them in his works and paints over them with fantastic cityscapes. He creates grandiose utopias full of astonishing details and ironic allusions. Shopping bags may soon be a thing of the past. That's the way things go. This gives Thitz's paintings a new dimension: in addition to their intrinsic value as coveted art objects, they also gain the aura of irretrievable historical artifacts. The artist's works can be found in numerous public and private collections around the world.
Hjördis Baacke is new to our program. She paints forests. Her works are realistic, yet full of fascinating moments, with a special focus on light, which sometimes gives her canvases an impressive effect. Every forest has its own character, its own personality, and Baacke's forest paintings are, so to speak, unmistakable portraits.
Hjördis Baacke (born in Leipzig in 1980) studied painting at the HGB under Arno Rink and Neo Rauch. She wrote her thesis in 2007 in the field of philosophy on the topic “The Forest as a Promise” under Christoph Türcke. The artist has received various art prizes and awards. Hjördis Baacke lives in Leipzig.
We look forward to your visit!