Ten galleries in Karlsruhe will open their doors this Saturday for the annual Karlsruhe Gallery Day, featuring an exciting program that includes a prominent local artist, emerging young talent, and a renowned lightweight construction expert turned artist. The event will conclude with drinks under the Hirsch Bridge and offers visitors a free shuttle service and guided bicycle tour.
The autumn open gallery day has become a fixture in Karlsruhe's art calendar, with participating galleries extending their hours into early Saturday evening and scheduling special premieres for the occasion. Yvonne Hohner, the new chairwoman of the Karlsruhe Gallery Association, expects strong attendance for this continuously evolving Karlsruhe Gallery Weekend.
Among the featured exhibitions, visitors can explore expressive art about destruction in Syria at Yvonne Hohner Contemporary. Gallery owner Yvonne Hohner, who has operated her gallery in Karlsruhe since 2021, describes her mission: "We see ourselves as an extension of Karlsruhe's art institutions, where people can view art for free and have personal encounters with artists." Her gallery showcases Syrian artist Tammam Azzam, who lives in Berlin, presenting his new watercolors with nuanced color gradations that address destruction and loss of homeland while also exploring quiet beauty and resilience.
A unique highlight comes from KIT Professor Thomas Ummenhofer, a lightweight construction expert making his gallery debut at Ewald Karl Schrade Gallery. Born in Überlingen on Lake Constance, Ummenhofer studied at the University of Karlsruhe and has led the Steel and Lightweight Metal Construction department at KIT for many years. "For me, this exhibition fulfills a childhood dream - I've always wanted to create art," he explains. For over 20 years, Ummenhofer has created art alongside his university work, inspired by the stable structure of precious metals and aluminum.
Ummenhofer's artistic process involves welding ultra-thin plates of strong materials into soft-looking cushions or embossing wave-like relief images. Using wooden plates as templates into which he mills patterns, the engineering professor employs water pressure from bodies of water to transfer natural ornaments onto thin metal plates. His earlier series emerged from diving in Lake Constance, while his latest summer works were created in the Mediterranean Sea at depths of 500 meters, where pressure between 140 and 500 tons per square meter acts on plates barely larger than medium-format paintings.
The internationally established artist Ulla von Brandenburg, born in Karlsruhe and currently living in Paris while teaching as a professor at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Karlsruhe, presents her multifaceted and cinematic work at Gallery Meyer-Riegger. Her exhibition "Die Schwelle" (The Threshold) showcases her multimedia creations that combine dance, rituals with singing and color. As Brandenburg explained during a previous exhibition at Karlsruhe's Municipal Gallery, her work consists not of video art but of Super-16mm films that explore the space between light and shadow, between fact and myth.
Emerging talent from the Karlsruhe Academy features prominently throughout the event. Gallery Alfred Knecht displays the light-flooded visual worlds of Karlsruhe-based artist Franziska Schemel, while multidisciplinary artist Markus Jäger, also a Karlsruhe Academy graduate, combines photography, computer technology, and ink to create structural compositions. Gallery Burster provides a platform for four academy students - Mareike Groß, Lina Härer, Emmy Tema, and Changxiao Wang - to showcase their new positions, including Groß's oil painting "Chocolate Ice Cream."
Additional highlights include expressive works by three painters at Michael Oess's Neue Kunst Gallery, while Gallery PAW presents works by Béla Feldberg, Kolja Kärtner Sainz, Matt Muir, and Tatjana Vall, posing the question: "What if you think of a gallery as a cave?" The experiential spaces of Japanese artist Chiharu Koda fill Gallery Clemens Thimme, and gouaches and drawings by Erich Reiling are displayed at Gallery Rottloff. The Geschwisterraum participates with "Intersection," supporting cultural exchange between Germany and Africa through a group exhibition.
The Karlsruhe Gallery Day runs from 2 PM to 7 PM on Saturday, offering a free shuttle service for visitors. Cycling enthusiasts can join a guided gallery bicycle tour starting at 3 PM from Karlsruhe's Market Square in front of City Hall. The art-filled Saturday concludes at 7 PM with a relaxed gathering featuring food and drinks under the Hirsch Bridge, providing visitors with an opportunity to reflect on their gallery experiences.
