Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt presents exhibition program 2023

Throughout her five decades of creative activity, the artist established a distinctive form language and a complex oeuvre. Her colorful large-format sculptures of women, known as Nanas, lay the groundwork for her international popularity and remain her signature to this day. The extensive exhibition, which includes over 100 works, provides an overview of all eras of her career.

The Schirn will debut a new installation by British artist Monster Chetwynd in early spring (March 3–May 29, 2023). The artist responds immediately and playfully to the design of the Schirn Rotunda with her piece, which allows viewers to enter the roofed-in space through the wide mouths of her monstrous Heads.

The Schirn’s major solo exhibition Elizabeth Price: Sound of the Break (March 23-May 29, 2023) features new works by the Turner Prize winner as well as those seen for the first time in Germany. Price creates moving images by combining graphics, text, and music to create spatial installations that reenact cultural and sociopolitical events and draw attention to tales that go ignored.

The Schirn will dedicate a large theme exhibition to the interesting history of plastics in fine art this summer. Plastic World (June 22-October 1, 2023) offers a broad view of the artistic usage and appraisal of plastic, reflecting the societal environment in question. The spectrum ranges from the exhilaration of 1960s pop culture to the futuristic influence of the space age, and from the rubbish works of Nouveau Réalisme to modern ecocritical attitudes. Over 100 pieces, assemblages, installations, films, and documentations by 50 international artists are on display.

At the same time, a focused solo exhibition by Martha Rosler, an American conceptual artist and critical feminist pioneer, is on display (July 6–September 24, 2023). Her art is always political and explores issues of power and violence, beauty ideals and their deconstruction, and the ostensible contradictions between conflict and consumption.

Marua Sagadin (September 21, 2023-January 14, 2024) is realizing new works in the Schirn Rotunda in response to the special peculiarities of this semipublic space on the occasion of Slovenia’s presentation as guest of honor at the Frankfurt Book Fair in the fall of 2023. Sagadin explores the social dimensions of a building or area, influenced by architectural history.

LYONEL FEININGER (October 27, 2023-February 18, 2024) is a well-known name in contemporary art. The Schirn will dedicate the first major retrospective in Germany in almost twenty-five years to this prominent painter and graphic artist in the autumn, presenting a thorough and startling overview of his creative output.

By the end of the year, the Schirn will give for the first time a full overview of JOHN AKOMFRAH’s (November 9, 2023-January 28, 2024) remarkable work, which is still relatively obscure in Germany. Akomfrah makes spooky audiovisual works with profound video works. His work addresses colonial histories, global migration, and the climate issue critically.

The Schirn’s lengthy presentation begins with a new immersive multiscreen installation.

In the film and video art series DOUBLE FEATURE, artists exhibit their own production followed by a film of their choice on the last Wednesday of each month. The film’s authors discuss their works as well as current developments in film and video art in an interview. DOUBLE FEATURE has been providing a continuous platform for various artistic orientations and styles of cinema and video art production for over ten years.

You will find the complete 2023 exhibition program of the Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt here.