The Best Art Exhibitions in Berlin Right Now

Last Updated on November 12, 2026

It’s always a great time to visit a museum or gallery in Berlin. After all, there are plenty to choose from. Berlin has about 175 museums including 28 municipal galleries and exhibition venues operated by the city, plus hundreds more commercial, private, and municipal art galleries. Even though I personally have an interest in art and make a point of visiting new exhibitions every week, there are still lots of things that I miss entirely.

Because it’s such a vast city, there are also lots of new openings every week, plus other events like artist talks or curator tours. If you want to keep on top of things, I recommend Berlin Art Link and Index Berlin.

However, sometimes you just want to know what’s on in Berlin right now. So I’ve created this post to keep you up to date on the best exhibitions in Berlin, which will be updated regularly.

The Best Art Exhibitions in Berlin Right Now

Maurizio Cattelan: ‘NIGHT’

Italian-born Maurizio Cattelan might seem like a strange choice for the Neue Nationalgalerie. The enfant terrible of the contemporary art world is known for attention grabbing works like his infamous “Comedian”: the banana duct-taped to a wall. But it’s not just cheap gimmicks. NIGHT is part of the 2026 Nationalgalerie Prize, which was selected by an international jury, focusing on important works by Cattelan (like the 1997 work Novocento pictured above) as well as a site-specific installation designed specifically for the iconic Mies van der Rohe building. Yes, it’s provocative but Cattelan delivers his message in a way few others would dare to.

• Until March 7, 2027
• Neue Nationalgalerie | Potsdamer Straße 50, 10785 Tiergarten | Map
• More info here.

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Ryuichi Sakamoto: ‘seeing sound, hearing time’

At first glance, the idea of Ryuichi Sakamoto in a museum setting might sound strange. To that end, this is the first Sakamoto exhibition in Europe. “seeing sound, hearing time’ was previously shown at the M+ Museum in Hong Kong and the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo. The exhibition presents seven works across five large-scale installations, combining video and sound– a hallmark of the Hamburger Bahnhof since its founding 30 years ago. I happened to visit on a very busy day, but was immediately transported into an almost meditative state. For example, take the work pictured above. IS YOUR TIME (2017) features a piano that was damaged by the 2011 Japan earthquake and tsunami, which plays sound triggered by live or recorded global seismological data. This one is well worth your time, even if you’re not already familiar with Sakamoto’s work.

• Until June 20, 2027
• Hamburger Bahnhof | Invalidenstraße 50, 10557 Moabit | Map
• More info here.

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‘Kreuzberg: Art and Migration since 1960’

Kreuzberg has long been known for being multicultural and punk—definitely not two adjectives that spring to mind when entering the beautiful Gropius Bau. But right now, the museum is hosting an exhibition that reflects on their location in Kreuzberg, shedding light on the social and cultural upheavals during the 60s and 70s. The works in the exhibition show how the so-called Gastarbeiter were actively recruited by the West German government after the 1960s to fill in for vacancies on production lines. Upon arrival these workers and their children were faced with unfair working conditions and xenophobia. With political tensions rising specifically around topics of migration, the exhibition shows how integral the migrant community were and are in shaping Berlin’s Kreuzberg district.

• Until January 17, 2027
• Gropius Bau | Niederkirchnerstrasse 7, 10963 Kreuzberg | Map
• More info here.

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Across Epochs: Gursky, Lucas, Miró, Warhol and the Art of the Long 19th Century

Before 1968, Alte Nationalgalerie was just the Nationalgalerie, before it split into the Neue and Alte, housing modern artworks in the building. These days we’re used to seeing the old masters in this space, but right now you can get a feel for how it used to be. “Across Epochs” is a new exhibition that showcases modern work by Gursky, Lucas, Miró and Warhol (to name a few) across ten rooms on three floors next to the permanent 19th century collection.

• Until Feb 28, 2027
• Alte Nationalgalerie | Bodestraße 1-3, 10178 Mitte | Map
• More info here.

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Portraits! Surprising Encounters from Botticelli to Lempicka

Berlin’s Gemäldegalerie is already known for having one of the finest portrait collections in the world, but this show builds on that heritage. “Portraits! Surprising Encounters from Botticelli to Lempicka” adds new portraits to the museum’s existing mix, while contrasting and comparing works from different eras side by side in order to highlight the ways in which we’ve always wanted to see ourselves and the ways in which those things have changed over time. There are about 80 portraits from five centuries and a few highlights include Botticelli’s Giuliano de’ Medici, Tamara de Lempicka’s glossy Art Deco sitters and Holbein’s Merchant Georg Gisze.

• Until March 14, 2027
• Gemäldegalerie | Kulturforum | Johanna und Eduard Arnhold Platz, Mitte, 10785 Tiergarten | Map
• More info here.

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Genghis Khan: ‘The World of the Mongols’

Berlin’s Museum Island has a new reason to visit this winter. Genghis Khan and the World of the Mongols runs at the James-Simon-Galerie until April, marking the 800th anniversary of the death of the man who founded the largest land empire in history. Rather than retelling the familiar conqueror myth, the Museum of Prehistory and Early History takes an archaeological approach. It shows how the Mongol world looked and felt through jewellery, warrior equipment, clothing, sculpture and everyday objects spanning roughly five centuries of nomadic horse cultures. Most of the Mongolian pieces are leaving their home country for the first time, and they are shown alongside objects from European collections. The result gives visitors a fresh and nuanced view of a figure who is hailed in Mongolia as a state-builder and renewer of the world, yet remembered elsewhere for the violence of his campaigns.

• Until April 18, 2027
• James Simon Galerie | Museum Island | Am Lustgarten, 10117 Mitte | Map
• More info here.

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Susan Hiller: ‘Bad Dreams’

KW Institute presents a solo exhibition of the late American-British artist Susan Miller. It’s the first survey of the artist’s work in the city. Hiller was born in the US in 1940 and she became became a pioneering figure in conceptual and video art, with Berlin shaping her practice in the early 2000s. The show explores how our personal and collective imaginations are formed, and how we perceive and tell stories about places, histories and realities. It brings together installations such as Wild Talents (1997), Channels (2013) and Resounding (Infrared) (2013). These works draw on the uncanny, the unseen and the half-remembered, and they feel strikingly current— a great pick if your taste runs to the strange. The show is presented alongside works by KOO JEONG A and Rafik Greiss, so there is plenty to see in one visit. (Watch my TikTok about it here!)

• Until Jan. 10, 2027
• KW Institute for Contemporary Art | Auguststraße 69, 10117 Mitte | Map
• More info here.

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Ruin and Rush: Berlin 1910–1930

If you want to step into the dizzying contradictions of early 20th-century Berlin, Ruin and Rush: Berlin 1910–1930 at the Neue Nationalgalerie is a great start. Curated by Uta Caspary and Irina Hiebert Grun, the show is built around the museum’s own Classical Modernism collection, with around 35 works. It examines the city’s polarised life in three sections, setting glamour against misery and rise against fall. Freedom, consumerism and excess are shown alongside growing poverty and unemployment. The exhibition opens with Ernst Ludwig Kirchner’s electric Potsdamer Platz (1914) and moves on to some of the era’s most recognisable faces and scenes, including Otto Dix’s The Skat Players (1920) and his portrait of the dancer Anita Berber (1925), George Grosz’s Grey Day (1921), Otto Nagel’s Boys from Wedding (1928) and Hannah Höch’s Dada collage.

• Until Jan. 3 2027
• Neue Nationalgalerie | Potsdamer Str. 50, 10785 Tiergarten | Map
• More info here.

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Controversial Kinship: Colonial and National Socialist Violence

Controversial Kinship: Colonial and National Socialist Violence at the Deutsches Historisches Museum tackles one of the most charged questions in contemporary historical debate. Housed in the museum’s Pei Building and curated by historian Stephan Malinowski, the exhibition asks what colonial and Nazi violence have in common, where they differ, and why the idea of a connection remains so contested. The museum describes it as the first exhibition of its kind. Instead of simply taking a side, it traces the history of the comparison itself. The debate began in the 1930s, when anti-colonial thinkers saw fascist rule in Europe as colonial and racist violence turned inward, in the wake of Italy’s brutal invasion of Ethiopia in 1935. It then follows the argument through to 1960. Across a 1,100-square-metre space, visitors move through themes such as racism and antisemitism, concentration camps, forced labour, resistance and collaboration, and the visibility of extreme violence. Propaganda posters, artworks and everyday objects like dolls and clothing give the debate a material, human dimension. The aim is not to settle the argument. It is to give visitors the historical evidence to judge these comparisons for themselves.

• Until April 11, 2027
• Deutsches Historisches Museum | Pei Building | Unter den Linden 2, 10117 Mitte | Map
• More info here.

Also Worth Your Time

• Shilpa Gupta: What Still Holds |Hamburger Bahnhof | Until 3 Jan. 2027
• Rubens, Jordaens, van Dyck: Flemish Master Drawings | Kupferstichkabinett, Kulturforum | Until January 31 2027
• Swedish Modernism | Brücke-Museum | Until February 28 2027
• Carsten Nicolai: WAVE WEAVE & SONO OBI | Eigen + Art Lab | Nov. 12-Dec. 19, 2026

Coming Soon in Berlin

• Sophie Calle: Is It Better? at Hamburger Bahnhof | Nov. 13-May 2, 2027
• Bizarre! A Crazy Word Makes (Art) History at the Kulturforum | Nov. 27-March 29, 2027
• Ulay, Ulay & Abramovic at Neue Nationalgalerie | Nov. 28-May 2, 2027
• HR Giger, Beksiński, Ruppert, Lynch: In the Shadow of Surrealism at the Scharf-Gerstenberg Collection | Dec. 18 – May 2, 2027
• Schatten Reich. The other German at Neue Nationalgalerie | Jan. 29-May 2, 2027
• EMOP Berlin 2027 | March 4-April 4, 2027
• Böcklin: Beyond the Myth at Alte Nationalgalerie | March 19-Aug. 1 2027
• Ai Weiwei at Bode Museum | May 5 2027 to 4 June 2028
• Thomas Gainsborough: Painter of Life at Gemäldegalerie | May 14-Sep. 12 2027

Enjoy Your Time At The Exhibition

Also, I do my best to keep things accurate here but check the museum or gallery website before you go for updates such as special events or holiday hours.

But I’m curious: what’s on your list? If I’ve missed a show you love, I’d like to hear about it.

Read This Next:

• Museum Island Berlin guide
• Best museums in Berlin

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