Current exhibitions in Düsseldorf at a glance
A selection of current exhibitions and highlights at Düsseldorf’s museums and collections.
NRW Art Collection | K20 Grabbeplatz
Chagall
Until August 10, 2025
The Russian-French painter Marc Chagall is an exceptional talent of modernism and is one of the most important artists of the 20th century. His fantastically poetic pictorial worlds and their motifs are still enigmatic today, their intense colorfulness extraordinary. The exhibition at the K20 presents around 120 paintings and works on paper from all of the artist's creative periods. One focus is on the early works created between 1910 and 1923. The influences of the avant-garde on Chagall's work can be clearly seen here, as well as the socially critical and sometimes dark side of his work. The exhibition also illustrates the development of the artist and his motifs up until the 1980s, when he delighted a wide audience with the vibrant colors of his paintings.
Credits
Marc Chagall in Saint Petersburg, June 17, 1910, © DR, Archives Marc et Ida Chagall, Paris, 2024
Marc Chagall, The Violinist, 1911, Le violoniste, oil on canvas, 94.5 × 69.5 cm, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen
Photo: Achim Kukulies, Düsseldorf, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2024
NRW Art Collection | K21 Ständehaus
Bracha Lichtenberg Ettinger
Until 31.8.2025
K21 is the first German institution to present an overview of the work of Bracha Lichtenberg Ettinger, who was born in Tel Aviv in 1948. Lichtenberg is a painter, psychoanalyst, philosopher and peace activist. She is only now becoming better known in Germany because she deliberately decided not to exhibit her work here for a long time. The reason for this was her intensive engagement with the country of her ancestors. The unresolved historical tensions between Israel, Palestine and Germany reverberate throughout her work - combined with an awareness of vulnerability, interdependence and the temporary nature of any safe haven.
Credit
Bracha Lichtenberg Ettinger, Eurydice - Halala n.1, 2017-2022, oil on canvas, 50 x 50 cm, Courtesy the Artist and Richard Saltoun Gallery, London, Rome and New York, © BRACHA
Art Palace
Mama. From Maria to Merkel
Until August 3, 2025
Exclaimed joyfully, grumbled, spoken quickly or drawn out - when we hear the word "mom", we immediately have a sound in our ears. The exhibition at the Kunstpalast is dedicated to the diverse ideas of what it means to have, become or be a mother. The focus is on the social expectations that have always influenced motherhood and are reflected in art, culture and everyday life. In addition to painting and sculpture, video installations and photography, the exhibition also features everyday objects, music and advertising.
Credit
Mother Angela: Der Spiegel, issue no. 39 (2015)
Alice Neel:The Family, 1980; Sprengel Museum Hannover: loan from private collection cropped
ELias Sime. ECHO የገደል ማሚቶ
Until June 1, 2025
In the first large-scale solo exhibition in German-speaking countries, the Kunstpalast presents the Ethiopian artist Elias Sime. He assembles large-format reliefs from everyday objects and discarded electronic components. Interwoven wires, rearranged keyboard elements and collaged motherboards become ornamental, abstract or figurative three-dimensional images.
Credit
TIGHTROPE. Behind the Processor, No. 6, 2022, (detail)Private collection, photo: Jonathan de Waart, FAA Photography & Design, Courtesy of the artist and GRIMM, Amsterdam | London | New York.
Portrait Elias Sime, Photo: Anne Orthen
The myth of Murano in the Kunstpalast Glass Collection
Until 5 October 2025
The glass collection at the Kunstpalast has been extensively modernized and exhibits over 1,000 pieces from the collection of around 13,000 objects. It is one of the world's largest glass collections and provides insights into the history of glass art from antiquity through the Middle Ages to contemporary glass objects. In a specially created exhibition area, changing themed exhibitions are also shown each year. It all starts with the myth of Murano: for 700 years, the small lagoon island of Murano near Venice has been the epitome of great glass art. The last great heyday was from 1920 to 1970, and the myth of Murano still lives on today. The Kunstpalast has an extensive collection from this period, from which 135 outstanding works are presented.
Credit
Luciano Gaspari, vase from the "Marine" series, Murano, circa 1965-1980.
Alessandro Pianon, orange-colored chick (pulcino), Murano, circa 1960-1962 (design).
NRW Forum
Superheroes
Until 11 May 2025
The exhibition title pretty much says it all – welcome to the universe of superheroes! From Batman and the Joker to manga and anime all the way to politics and propaganda, this exhibition showcases the diversity of the genre across eleven themed sections. On display are numerous comic books, as well as original drawings, figures and action toys, as well as film clips and media art installations. The show presents upwards of 1,600 exhibits over more than 1,200 square metres. Marvel is there, and DC, with Batman and Superman, of course, but also Sailor Moon and My Hero Academia, along with EXO and Fury from the YouNeek YouNiverse. YouNeek Studios was founded by Roye Okupe, whose superhero creations are inspired by African history, culture and mythology.
Credit
NRW-Forum: YouNeek Studios: Fury, whose "real" name in the comic is Zahra Martins, is part of the YouNeek YouNiverse. The illustration is from the first volume "The Oloris - Heroes will unite" (2024).
KIT - Art in the tunnel
Melanie Loureiro. The interconnectedness of creatures
Until 9 June 2025
Melanie Loureiro has painted voracious caterpillars, enchanting butterflies and moonlit moths, pasted them on, dusted them with paint and worked them with a scalpel until they dominate the pictorial space oversized and in rich colors, giving us a unique visual experience. Sunflowers on which ladybugs cavort, three ants feasting on a wild strawberry - the creatures in these paintings are naturalistic yet abstract, stripped of their natural ornamentality. The entrance area already puts visitors in the mood for the exhibition. Together with artist Klara Landwehr, Loureiro has transformed the entrance into an underground garden where visitors can sit and reflect on "The Connectedness of Creatures".
Credit
Portrait Melanie Loureiro, Photo: Ivo Faber
Art gallery
Artists of the VdDK 1844. ... and we're just getting started.
Until May 25, 2025
The Düsseldorf Artists' Association (VdDK) was founded in 1844 to provide mutual support and assistance. It is one of the oldest still active artists' associations in Germany. However, the exhibition is not a nostalgic look back at 181 years of the association's history, but a lively snapshot of the current work of its members. Around 250 works of painting, graphic art, sculpture, photography and media art invite visitors to discover the VdDK's extensive art production.
Credit
Installation view Kunsthalle Düsseldorf 2025, photo: Melanie Zanin
Sammlung Philara
Cutting the Puppeteer's Strings
Until June 1, 2025
With "Cutting the Puppeteer's Strings", the Philara Collection presents a comprehensive group exhibition on the subject of puppetry, marionette theater and related art forms. The works pose questions, sometimes in a humorous way, about our options for action on a private or political level and invite us to rethink. The exhibition brings together works from Gil Bronner's collection, loans and new productions especially for the exhibition, which are complemented by a cooperation with the Marionette Theater in Düsseldorf.
Credit
Leila Hekmat (Photo: Philara Collection)
Julia Stoschek Foundation
Lynn Hershman Leeson. Are Our Eyes Targets?
Until April 6, 2025
The Julia Stoschek Foundation presents "Are Our Eyes Targets?", the first solo exhibition by renowned media art pioneer Lynn Hershman Leeson in Düsseldorf. The exhibition spans the entire second floor and presents videos, photo collages as well as interactive and mixed-media installations that provide an insight into the artist's groundbreaking practice.
Credit
The Electronic Diaries of Lynn Hershman Leeson, six-channel video installation. Courtesy of the artist and Anglim Gilbert Gallery, San Francisco.
Digital Diaries
Until April 6, 2025
The group exhibition "Digital Diaries" examines how a total of 16 female artists have experimented with personal records from the 1970s to the present day. Inspired by the six-channel installation "The Electronic Diary of Lynn Hershman Leeson", which can be seen at the JSF Düsseldorf at the same time, "Digital Diaries" brings together videos, photographs, video sculptures and mixed-media works that deal with the intimate experiences of female artists.
Credit
Exhibit from "Digital Diaries" by Hannah Perry. (Courtesy of the artist and Daata, London.)
Langen Foundation
Ringier Collection 1995 - 2025
Until October 25, 2025
The Langen Foundation is showing a comprehensive selection of works from the renowned Swiss Ringier Collection for the first time in Germany. The exhibition, curated by Beatrix Ruf and the artist Wade Guyton, comprises around 500 works and offers an impressive overview of one of the most exciting collections of contemporary art. With works from the late 1960s to the present day, it documents not only Michael Ringier's 30 years of collecting, but also formative developments in the art world.
Credit
Langen Foundation: The raft of Althoff-Elfgen
Museum Insel Hombroich
Andreas Gefeller & Beate Gütschow. Energy
13. April 2025 to November 2, 2025
Artificial light defines the urban night and radiates up to the clouds, which glow in Andreas Gefeller's large-scale photographs with treacherous seductive power. Beate Gütschow takes her photographic diary to the source of energy production in the Rhineland and documents the resistance to open-cast mining in a participatory manner. The result is an unusual dialog of contemporary photography.
Credit
Raketenstation Hombroich Siza Pavilion
Info: The Zwölf-Räume-Haus will be fitted with an ecological geothermal heating system and a new roof. In addition, barrier-free access to the museum is being created. As a result, some areas are closed and not all exhibition buildings are open. The High Gallery is also being renovated.
Tip: You can see an overview of all Düsseldorf museums and collections, dates and further information here.
Lead photo: Mama. From Maria to Merkel, Kunstpalast, Photo: Lars Heidrich
(While we endeavour to provide correct dates, we are unable to guarantee accuracy.)
