Bridget Riley, Red Overture, 2012, Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin, Germany
Bridget Riley, Red Overture, 2012, Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin, Germany

Summer is finally here, and with it comes seven exhibitions in Berlin galleries that are worth visiting in the coming months.

At KOW Berlin, Michael E. Smith (American, b.1977) exhibits everyday objects, which are detached from their context in such a way that they relate to each other or are left in isolation. In the exhibition, socks, bottles, and carcasses indicate the existential dimension and space they occupy in our lives. Smith depicts these objects as vulnerable, and sheds light on the subtle conditions of human life.

Michael E. Smith will be on view from April 26, 2013 to July 13, 2013 at Brunnenstraße 9, 14119 Berlin, Germany.

The oeuvre of interdisciplinary artist Nasan Tur (German, b.1974) includes sculptures, videos, photographs, drawings, performances, and installations. His first solo exhibition, Nasan Tur: At Your Own _____., will be on view until August 3 at Blain | Southern’s Berlin gallery. In the exhibition, Tur contemplates the social and economic structures in our global contemporary world, and directly refers to the architectural construction of the gallery’s space. In the basement, 800 apparently identical drawings are shown, only revealing their singularity after one has given them a second look. Upstairs, a selection of the 2012 Clouds series is exhibited, at first glance appearing like aesthetic multicolor clouds, but finally disclosing themselves as extracts of violence. Through this game with the visitor, Tur brings up an interesting association of action and reaction.

Nasan Tur: At Your Own _____. will be on view from May 17 to August 3 at Potsdamer Straße 77-87, 10785 Berlin, Germany.

In the spacious exhibition halls at Galerie Max Hetzler, 15 paintings and seven works on paper by Bridget Riley (British, b.1931) are currently on view. In Bridget Riley: Die Streifenbilder / The Stripe Paintings, the artist deals with the interaction of form and color with references to nature. She was inspired by Abstract works by Georges Seurat (French, 1859–1891) and Paul Cézanne (French, 1839–1906), as well as by space-geometric works by Andrea Mantegna (Italian, 1431–1506), and Raphaël (Italian, 1483–1520). Riley constantly varies the Abstract stripe-motif and, since the late 1960s, has been focusing more and more on color paintings. The exhibition shows Riley’s transition, from her first black-and-white stripe paintings of 1961 to her accomplished works of the 1980s, which refer to the color aspects of Egyptian nature, up until her stripe images of 2009, which were created on a more loose structure and present a warm color palette.

Bridget Riley: Die Streifenbilder / The Stripe Paintings will be on view from June 8 to July 18 at Oudenarder Straße 16-20, 13347 Berlin, Germany.

Until August 24, CAMERA WORK is exposing more than 100 works of seven different photographers in its spaces at Auguststraße. The exhibition, Selection, includes works of several genres, including nudes, portraits, animal photographs, and still lifes. Two portfolios from Helmut Newton (German, b.1920) and Jeanloup Sieff (French, b.1933), which were assembled with the artists, are highlights of the exhibition. At the same time, the affiliate gallery at Kantstraße is presenting Camera Work rocks, which includes more than 100 works from 20 photographers, such as Richard Avedon (American, b.1923), Anton Corbijn (Dutch, b.1955), and Annie Leibovitz (American, b.1949), who portrayed the most famous ambassadors of pop and rock music of the last decades.

Selection will be on view from April 25 to August 24 at Auguststr.11-13, 10117 Berlin, Germany.

CAMERA WORK rocks will be on view from June 8 to August 17 at Kantstr.149, 10623 Berlin, Germany.

In honor of the return of the Indonesian pavilion to this year’s Venice Biennale, ARNDT is showing the first solo show of artist Agus Suwage (Indonesian, b.1959). Cycle No.3 complements the exhibition trilogy CYCLE, which was on view in Jakarta, in 2012, and New York, in 2013. In this series of works, which incorporates paintings, sculptures, and installations, Suwage relates to both the cycle of life as well as the concept of rotation in an ironic and unconventional way. The artist further explores this concern through reflecting on the process of recycling by integrating found and used objects into his art.

AGUS SUWAGE: Cycle No. 3 will be on view from June 8 to August 30 at Potsdamer Str.96, 10785 Berlin, Germany.

Fiene Scharp, Untitled, 2011, 401 Contemporary, Berlin, Germany

For the first time, 401 Contemporary, which was founded in 2009, is showing works by the emerging artist Fiene Scharp (German, b.1984). This promising artist often incorporates geometric elements, such as lines, fields, and squares into her art. In her exhibition entitledFiene Scharp: l l l l l l l l l l l l l l, she once againproves to master a technique of producing works of simple clarity. In the show, her lucent structures reveal a form of organic quality through their continuous repetition, and it seems as if their actual materiality is altered by the care and skillful process of fabrication. Scharp manages to dismantle her material’s dimensions and create plasticity in such a way that the paper she uses resembles fabric, and the graphite she uses resembles a three-dimensional relief.

Fiene Scharp: l l l l l l l l l l l l l l will be on view from June 21 to July 26 at Potsdamer Str.81 B, 10785 Berlin, Germany.