12 unmissable art exhibitions to see in Berlin summer/autumn 2025
If you’re heading to Berlin this summer, you’re in luck. Not only are there fabulous exhibitions to visit across the city, but 2025 also marks the 13th edition of the Berlin Biennale, one of the most anticipated international art events, showcasing a compelling selection of works by a variety of international artists throughout the city. From Delcy Morelos’s large-scale installation Madreat at Hamburger Bahnhof, to a major retrospective of Brazilian artist Lygia Clark at the Neue Nationalgalerie, and Fujiko Nakaya’s fog sculpture in the museum’s sculpture garden, Berlin offers a strong selection of exhibitions this season. Each exhibition reflects pressing social, political and ecological themes. Here’s our guide to 12 must-see exhibitions across Berlin in summer/autumn 2025.
CHANEL Commission: Klára Hosnedlová. embrace
Klára Hosnedlová, CHANEL Commission: Klára Hosnedlová. embrace, 2025, Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart, 1.5. – 26.10.2025 © Courtesy Artist, Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler, White Cube / Nationalgalerie – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Zden?k Porcal – Studio Flusser
#FLODown: Klára Hosnedlová’s embrace is on show at Hamburger Bahnhof as the inaugural commission of the CHANEL Métiers d’art fund. This large-scale installation takes over the museum’s main gallery. Born in the Czech Republic, Hosnedlová is known for her work combining sculpture, textiles and architectural detail, often referencing modernist interiors and traditional craft. In this exhibition, she creates a carefully constructed environment resembling a fictional archaeological site. The installation incorporates ceramic objects, hand-embroidered textiles and architectural fragments that suggest both past and future. The work explores the relationship between material culture, memory and gendered labour, reflecting on how artisanal techniques can preserve and reshape cultural identity. The commission connects directly to CHANEL’s celebration of craftsmanship, while Hosnedlová reimagines these traditions in a contemporary context.
Date: 1 May – 26 October 2025. Location: Hamburger Bahnhof, Museum für Gegenwart, Invalidenstraße 50, 10557 Berlin. Price: from 14 EUR. Concessions available. Book here
Fujiko Nakaya: Fog Sculpture in the Sculpture Garden
Nebelskultpur von Fujiko Nakaya im Skulpturengarten der Neuen Nationalgalerie, 2025, © Neue Nationalgalerie – Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz / David von Becker.
#FLODown: Japanese artist Fujiko Nakaya brings her site-specific work Fog Sculpture to the outdoor space of the Neue Nationalgalerie. Since the early 1970s, Nakaya has developed a distinctive practice using pure water vapour to create constantly shifting clouds of fog. The Berlin edition of her work responds to the surrounding architecture and weather, creating a changing experience that depends on light, air currents and the viewer’s movement through space. Her fog sculptures challenge traditional ideas of form and permanence, encouraging reflection on natural processes, visibility and interaction. This work is part of the museum’s ongoing sculpture programme and is presented in cooperation with Espace Louis Vuitton Tokyo and the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation.
The sculpture is activated on the hour between 11 am and 5 pm. On Thursdays, activations run until 7 pm. Each fog sequence lasts for 8 minutes.
Date: 2 May – 14 September 2025. Location: Neue Nationalgalerie, Potsdamer Straße 50, 10785 Berlin. Price: from 14 EUR. Concessions available. Book now
Toyin Ojih Odutola: U22 Adijatu Straße
Ausstellungsansicht „Toyin Ojih Odutola. U22 – Adijatu Straße“, Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart, 13.6.2025 – 4.1.2026© Toyin Ojih Odutola, 2025. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York / Foto: Nationalgalerie – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Jacopo La Forgia
#FLODown: Nigerian-American artist Toyin Ojih Odutola presents U22 – Adijatu Straße, her first solo exhibition in Germany, at Hamburger Bahnhof. Transforming the space into a fictional Berlin U-Bahn station, the show features around 25 large-scale drawings that follow a speculative narrative centred on Adijatu, a character named after the artist’s Yoruba Muslim name. Using text, sound and imagery, Odutola explores themes of identity, culture and displacement through her detailed mark-making. This exhibition is part of Hamburger Bahnhof’s U22 series, which showcases talented artists under 40 who combine storytelling with visual art.
Dates: 13 June 2025 – 4 January 2026. Location: Hamburger Bahnhof, Invalidenstraße 50, 10557 Berlin. Price: from 14 EUR. Concessions available. Book now
Lygia Clark: Retrospective
Lygia Clark. Retrospektive, O Eu e o Tu (Série Roupa-Corpo-Roupa), 1967, Ausstellungsansicht, Neue Nationalgalerie, 2025, © Neue Nationalgalerie - Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz / David von Becker
#FLODown: This major retrospective surveys the work of Brazilian artist Lygia Clark, a central figure in Latin American modernism and a key contributor to the Neo-Concretist movement. The exhibition spans her career from early abstract paintings to her later participatory works that engage the body and senses. Clark’s practice challenged the separation between art and viewer, inviting audiences to manipulate objects and engage with concepts of healing, therapy and experience. The show traces her progression from geometric abstraction to interactive sculptures and relational objects, positioning her as a pioneer of what would later be called relational aesthetics. It offers a comprehensive overview of her contribution to both 20th century art and contemporary discourse.
Dates: 23 May 2025 – 12 October 2025. Location: Neue Nationalgalerie, Potsdamer Straße 50, 10785 Berlin.Price: from 16 EUR. Concessions available. Book now
Yoko Ono, Dream Together
YOKO ONO: DREAM TOGETHER, Exhibition view, Neue Nationalgalerie, 2025, Artwork: © Yoko Ono, Foto: © Nationalgalerie – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin / David von Becker
#FLODown: Dream Together brings together a selection of Yoko Ono’s participatory works, text pieces and installations, which reflect on collective action, peace and the power of imagination. Known for her conceptual approach and pioneering role in performance and instruction-based art, Ono uses language and minimal materials to encourage the audience to complete the work through thought and engagement. The exhibition focuses on her work from the 1960s to today, highlighting her belief in social change through poetic gesture and shared responsibility. The title refers to a hopeful call for collaboration and unity, presented through delicate but purposeful works that speak to both personal and political histories.
Dates: 11 April - 14 September 2025. Location: Neue Nationalgalerie, Potsdamer Straße 50, 10785 Berlin. Price: from 14 EUR. Concessions available. Book now
Delcy Morelos: Madre
Delcy Morelos, Madre, 2025, earth, clay, water, wood, metal, jute, hay, straw, cinnamon, cloves, buckwheat, chia seeds, tobacco, honey, dimensions variable. Exhibition view Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart, 11.7.2025 – 25.1.2026 © Delcy Morelos, 2025. Courtesy the artist and Marian Goodman Gallery. Photo: Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie / Jacopo La Forgia
#FLODown: Colombian artist Delcy Morelos’ first solo museum exhibition in Germany, Madre, is on display at Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart. The large-scale installation incorporates soil, clay, hay, spices such as cinnamon and cloves, and plant-based materials like buckwheat, chia seeds, and tobacco to evoke a sensory dialogue with the earth. Morelos draws on Indigenous knowledge and Andean cosmologies to reflect on regeneration, ancestry, and humanity’s separation from the natural world. The installation occupies a hall adjacent to Joseph Beuys’s permanent works, offering an intentional conversation with Beuys’s land-based practice.
Date: 11 July 2025 – 25 January 2026. Location: Hamburger Bahnhof, Invalidenstraße 50–51, 10557 Berlin. Price: from 16 EUR. Concessions available. Book now
Rico Puhlmann: Fashion Photography 1950s–1990s
Rico Puhlmann, Naomi Campbell (mit beigefarbenem oversized Seidenpullover mit Zopfmuster von Michael Kors), 1992, Silbergelatinepapier, 50,5 x 40,6 cm, © Rico Puhlmann Archive. (veröffentlicht in „10 Most Beautiful Women“, Harper’s Bazaar (USA), Nr. 3366, June 1992)
#FLODown: Rico Puhlmann was one of the leading fashion photographers of postwar Germany, and this exhibition offers a wide-ranging overview of his work spanning four decades. Featuring editorial images, behind-the-scenes material and personal artefacts, the show traces his visual style from black-and-white elegance to the colour-saturated look of the 1980s. Puhlmann’s work appeared in magazines such as Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar and Brigitte, capturing both European and American fashion culture. The exhibition also explores his contribution to shaping fashion photography as a genre, highlighting his flair for composition, lighting and movement.
Dates: 27 June 2025 – 15 February 2026. Location: Museum für Fotografie, Jebensstraße 2, 10623 Berlin. Price: from 10 EUR. Concessions available. Book now
ToiletFotoPaperGrafiska
ToiletFotoPaperGrafiska. © TOILETPAPER
#FLODown: ToiletFotoPaperGrafiska is a provocative group exhibition that embraces irreverence, wit and the raw edge of independent publishing. Blurring the lines between photography, printmaking and DIY zine culture, the show offers a mix of satire, protest and absurdist humour. Artists use lo-fi materials and unconventional formats, think photocopies, disposable cameras, found images and toilet paper, to tackle themes ranging from bodily politics and media overload to social taboos and everyday frustration. The tone is playful but pointed, poking fun at institutional conventions while questioning who gets to be seen and heard.
Date: 10 May - 31 August 2025. Location: Fotografiska Berlin, Oranienburger Straße 54, Berlin.Price: from 14 EUR. Concessions available. Book now
Extreme Tension: Art between Politics and Society
Zerreißprobe. Kunst zwischen Politik und Gesellschaft. Sammlung der Nationalgalerie 1945-2000, Ausstellungsansicht, Neue Nationalgalerie, © Nationalgalerie – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin / David von Becker
#FLODown: Extreme Tension: Art between Politics and Society at the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin explores how artists from 1945 to 2000 responded to the political and social upheavals of their time. Spanning movements such as Art Informel, Pop Art, Minimalism, and Conceptual art, the exhibition unfolds across 14 thematic sections including realism and abstraction, protest, feminism, identity, and ecology. Rather than offering straightforward answers, the works ask how art can remain politically and ethically engaged in turbulent contexts. Featuring artists like Joseph Beuys, Lee Bontecou, Francis Bacon, Valie Export, Bridget Riley and Gerhard Richter, Extreme Tension offers a reflection on the role of art as resistance, commentary, and catalyst.
Date: 30 July – 20 October 2025. Location: Neue Nationalgalerie, Potsdamer Straße 50, 10785 Berlin. Price: from 14 EUR. Concessions available. Book now
Helmut Newton: Polaroids
Helmut Newton, Italian Vogue, Monte Carlo 2003 (SX-70)
#FLODown: Polaroids opens up a lesser-known facet of legendary fashion photographer Helmut Newton’s working process: his extensive use of Polaroids. Often viewed as disposable or preparatory tools, Newton’s instant photographs are here reframed as a distinct visual archive in their own right. Shot during test sessions for editorial and commercial assignments, the Polaroids document informal moments, wardrobe experiments and lighting setups, revealing a more improvisational side to Newton’s famously polished images. They also offer insight into the recurring themes of glamour, voyeurism and control that run throughout his work. Stripped of retouching and studio sheen, these images feel more candid, even vulnerable, and add a layer of intimacy to his iconic photographic language.
Date: until 28 September 2025. Location: Helmut Newton Foundation, Jebensstraße 2, 10623 Berlin. Price: from 12 EUR. Concessions available. Book now
13th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art
Installation view, 13th Berlin Biennale, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, 2025; image: Eberle & Eisfeld. Front: Anawana Haloba, Looking for Mukamusaba – An Experimental Opera, 2024/25. © Anawana Haloba; Sammlung Hartwig Art Foundation; Back (from left to right): Iris Yingzen, Garden of Hope, 2025. © Iris Yingzen; Han Bing and Kashmiri Cabbage Walker, Walking the Cabbage in Berlin, 2025. © Han Bing & Kashmiri Cabbage Walker
#FLOLondon: Berlin’s leading international art biennale returns for its 13th edition, bringing together artists, collectives, and thinkers from around the world. Known for its critical and experimental approach, the biennale addresses current social, political, and environmental issues through a wide range of media, including installation, video, sound, and performance. Taking place across multiple venues, including established institutions like the KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Sophiensæle, Hamburger Bahnhof, and alternative spaces such as the former courthouse on Lehrter Straße. The 2025 edition is themed “passing the fugitive on.” Curated by Zasha Colah, it features over 170 works by more than 60 artists and collectives, many newly commissioned. These works explore strategies of resistance, care, and global solidarity, offering a potent reflection on the role of art in politically challenging times.
Dates: 7 September - 30 November 2025. Location: multiple venues across Berlin. Price: from 16 EUR. Concessions available. Book now
Olafur Eliasson: the lure of looking through a polarised window of opportunities, or seeing a surprise before it’s reduced, split, and then further reduced
Olafur Eliasson, The lure of looking through a polarised window of opportunities, or seeing a surprise before it’s reduced, split, and then further reduced, installation view: neugerriemschneider, Berlin, 2025. Photo: Jens Ziehe. © 2025 Olafur Eliasson
#FLODown: Olafur Eliasson returns to Berlin with a solo exhibition that continues his long-standing interest in perception, light and scientific phenomena. Presented at Galerie neugerriemschneider, the exhibition includes new works using optical devices, reflective surfaces and colour theory to challenge how viewers experience space and time. Eliasson’s practice often draws from physics, environmental science and philosophy, and here he invites viewers to consider how vision is constructed and how observation shapes understanding. The title itself reflects the layered nature of the works on view, which are both precise and open-ended.
Date: 1 August - 21 September 2025. Location: Galerie neugerriemschneider, Linienstraße 155, 10115 Berlin. Price: Free. Book now
Dioscuri: The Given Day
Dioskuren: Der geschenkte Tag. Michael Müller im Neuen Museum, Rendering, © Studio Michael Müller
#FLODown: At the Neues Museum in Berlin, the exhibition Dioscuri: The Given Day presents a compelling dialogue between antiquity and contemporary art, set around the mythological twins Castor and Pollux (the Dioscuri). Presented in the museum’s staircase hall, the installation by German‑British artist Michael Müller engages with themes of time, mortality, sibling duality and myth-making, interweaving newly commissioned contemporary works with classical artefacts drawn from the museum’s collection. The result is an exploration of how ancient myths continue to resonate in today’s culture.
Dates: until 29 September 2025. Location: Neues Museum, Bodestraße 1, 10178 Berlin. Price: from 14 EUR. Concessions available. Book now
Museum on the Move: A Collection for the 21st Century
Jeremy Shaw, Phase Shifting Index, 2020. 7 channel video, sound and light installation. Installationsansicht / Installation view, Hamburger Bahnhof - Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart. Courtesy of the Artist; Photo Timo Ohler
#FLODown: This collection-based exhibition offers a new presentation of the Nationalgalerie’s holdings, highlighting how art from the late 20th and early 21st centuries engages with contemporary life. The curatorial approach is flexible and interdisciplinary, bringing together painting, photography, installation and video works. The title Museum on the Move reflects both the evolving nature of the collection and the changing role of museums in society. It includes major works by international and German artists, with themes ranging from urbanism and migration to technology and identity.
Dates: Ongoing through 2025. Location: Hamburger Bahnhof, Invalidenstraße 50, 10557 Berlin. Price: from 14 EUR. Concessions available. Book now
Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind
Foto: Clay Perry / Kunstwerk © Yoko Ono
#FLODown: If your looking to engage more with Yoko Onos work and you misssed her ehxibtion that wa son show at teh Tate last, year, fortunately you ar win lunch at her exhitbion <usuic of the Mind is nw on show at Gropius Bau, with an in an expanded Berlin version. The major retrospective spans over seven decades of Ono’s practice, including early conceptual works, sound installations, films and documentation of performances. The exhibition places special emphasis on her musical collaborations, her activism and her use of instruction pieces as an artistic form. On display are her interactive works involving audience participation, her iconic Cut Piece, and a reconstructed White Chess Set. The show presents Ono as a radical, poetic and politically engaged artist whose ideas continue to resonate today.
Dates: until 20 October 2025. Location: Gropius Bau, Niederkirchnerstraße 7, 10963 Berlin. Price: from 12 EUR. Concessions available. Book now
Gerhard Richter: 100 Works for Berlin
Gerhard RichterMV 133, 2011Lack auf Farbfotografie10,1 x 15,1 cmLeihgabe der Gerhard Richter Kunststiftung© Gerhard Richter 2023 (31032023)
#FLODown: This long-term exhibition at the Neue Nationalgalerie features a significant loan from the Gerhard Richter Art Foundation, showcasing key works from across Richter’s career. Central to the show is the Birkenau series (2014), four large abstract paintings based on photographs from the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. Richter transferred the images onto canvas with charcoal and oil paint, then painted over them until they became abstract. Opposite these works is a four-part mirror that adds a reflective element. The exhibition also includes pieces such as Squatters’ House (1989), 4,900 Colors (2007), Strip (2013/2016). Created with Richter’s input, the exhibition will change over time with new curatorial and artistic additions.
Date: Until September 2026. Location: Neue Nationalgalerie, Potsdamer Straße 50, 10785 Berlin. Price: from 14 EUR. Concessions available. Book now
When visiting Berlin, we recommend the Berlin WelcomeCard, which offers unlimited public transport and discounts at numerous museums and cultural attractions across the city. In addition, to help you make your way around the city’s fantastic exhibitions, the Museum Pass Berlin grants free entry to over 30 major museums, including the Neue Nationalgalerie and Hamburger Bahnhof. The pass is valid for three consecutive days, making it ideal for exploring Berlin’s rich and diverse museum landscape.
