Past exhibitions

From April 18 to June 16, 2024

Inspired by Astrida Neimanis' essay "Hydrofeminism: Or, On Becoming a Body of Water", the show explores the connections between humans and ecology and invites visitors to take a fresh look at their relationship with nature. It is the first exhibition conceived by the new management duo of the Städtische Galerie Fruchthalle, Joanne Rodriguez and Jan Philipp Nühlen.

The works of artist Riikka Tauriainen (*1979 in Finland) and artist Tomas Kleiner (*1990 in Sweden) combine the themes of body and water, region and ecosystems as well as microorganisms. Tauriainen's artworks explore the element of water in a poetic and scientific way, while Kleiner deals with hybridities and adaptations to changing circumstances. Works from the Rastatt Collection - including Otto Dix and URSULA - complement and deepen the theme. The Rhine and the Murg as the defining rivers of Rastatt as well as the eel barge "Heini" - today a museum ship in the Old Rhine - are also integrated into the show, creating a dialog about the interdependence of people and nature in the region.

The exhibition "My body is moor, estuary, ecosystem..." raises important questions about alternative visions for dealing with nature and promotes equal coexistence.

From July 14, 2023 to April 1, 2024

Who hasn't experienced it: sometimes a different point of view completely changes the way you see things. Museum director Sebastian Schmitt offers art lovers new perspectives on the Rastatt Collection and selected works by three artists, each with a different conceptual approach, with the "Point of View" exhibition. From July 14, 2023 to April 1, 2024, the show in the Städtische Galerie Fruchthalle invites visitors to take a fresh look at the works of art in the museum's collection. It is the last exhibition curated by Schmitt before his professional reorientation. In keeping with his very personal style, with which he has shaped and enriched the Fruchthalle during his time as museum director, visitors can also look forward to new, exciting perspectives in his final exhibition.

From May 12 to July 2, 2023

TOP_0023 combines eighteen up-and-coming individual positions and can be seen at two locations: At the Städtische Galerie Fruchthalle and the Kunstverein Rastatt in the Pagodenburg. The exhibition thus forges a link within the city and brings fresh artistic impulses to urban society. Together with the Kunstakademie Karlsruhe, the master students will present their final works at the Städtische Galerie Fruchthalle and the Kunstverein Rastatt. The diversity of artistic positions reflects current developments in contemporary art, both in terms of media and thematic focus. The exhibition invites visitors to engage with the diversity and discover up-and-coming artists at the end of their academic maturation process. All artists are represented with works in the Städtische Galerie and the Kunstverein in the Pagodenburg. The Kunstverein is open at the same time and can be reached on foot in ten minutes. Artists: Erina Bonk / Flora Fritz/ Max Gömann/ Jungin Hwang/ Michèle Janata/ Hyunjin Kim/ Fabian-André Krippner/ Vincent Krüger/ Lena Laguna Diel/ Miji Lee/ Sojeong Moon/ Till Müller/ Hannes Mussner/ Christoph Nuber/ Antonella Rottler/ Jana Trautmann/ Fancheng Xu/ Areum Yoon

From February 23 to May 1, 2023

The exhibition presents a variety of different works by Ottersweier artist Manfred Emmenegger-Kanzler. Works made of ceramics will be on display as well as temporary works made of bricks. In addition, one of his objects will be presented in the glass case in front of the Fruchthalle. In the exhibition "Treppensteigen", the focus of the presentation is on Manfred Emmenegger-Kanzler's terracottas. They refer to basic architectural forms such as houses, staircases, pillars or towers and take on a lively quality thanks to their pitted surface and earthy color. His "staircases", as the artist himself calls the series of works, lead into "nothingness". For Emmenegger-Kanzler, the path remains the goal.

From December 9, 2022 to May 1, 2023
The exhibition by sculptor and painter Myriam Holme is based on a collage from Holme's "poetry of the week" series. The collages on paper combine writing-based set pieces with various design techniques. A selection of 21 collages from this series will be presented for the first time in a museum setting and juxtaposed with an expansive installation of sculptural works. These works, presented lying on the floor, are largely based on curved aluminum plates that are tactilely integrated into the space and relate to the postmodern architecture of the Fruchthalle. The exhibition thus also becomes a sensory experience.
About the artist: Myriam Holme studied at the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Karlsruhe from 1996 to 2002. She herself taught at the art academies in Munich and Düsseldorf and received scholarships from the Kunstfonds Bonn, the state of Baden-Württemberg and the German Academy in Rome. in 2017, she was awarded the Kubus Art Prize for expanded painting at the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart. Holme has been represented with her works in solo and group exhibitions in museums in Germany and abroad.

From December 9, 2022 to May 1, 2023
With this exhibition, the gallery is presenting a presentation of its collection at the end of 2022 and also kicking off the anniversary year. The presentation draws on works from the "Art in Baden after 1945" collection and contemporary contributions. Spatial concepts in painting and drawing are juxtaposed with expansive sculptures. Here, artists from different generations come together and negotiate the theme of space in sculpture and painting. Works by Manfred Emmenegger-Kanzler, Gerlinde Fertig, Jochen Damian Fischer, Lea Gocht, Barbara Haim, Johanna Helbing-Felix, Bernadette Hörder, Günther Karcher, Jörn Kausch and Susanne Neiss, among others, will be on display.

From October 1, 2022 to January 22, 2023
Jan-Hendrik Pelz's exhibition has been on display at Galerie Fruchthalle since October 1. In oil paintings, assembled into life-size pictorial objects, the artist has portrayed people who have fled to Germany in search of protection from war, terror and political persecution. The cooperation with refugees came about through the initial reception center for refugees (LEA) in Ellwangen. "An Inner Place" shows the people who have arrived here and have now become part of our society. They appear relaxed and keep their eyes closed, creating a calm, concentrated atmosphere that involves the viewer and makes them part of this multicultural community. In the exhibition, the people portrayed also have their say by describing their experiences of flight in short form and largely anonymized.

From July 8 to November 27, 2022

The group exhibition "Schmunzeln - von heiter bis absurd" at the Städtische Galerie Fruchthalle Rastatt, deals with the moment of absurdity and hilarity in the production and contemplation of art. All the works share a basic humorous attitude and a moment of tongue-in-cheek in their approach. The exhibition focuses on aspects such as pictorial wit, deception, theatricality and the interplay between work and title or the relationship between image and writing. The works are not intended to be funny, but can be read as such. The exhibition takes place in cooperation with the Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design (HfG) and is sponsored by SV Versicherung and LBBW.

Participating artists:
Francis Alÿs, Chaos Comic Club, Toninho Dingl, Sophie Innmann, Lisa Mühleisen, Jochen Mühlenbrink, Karo Kucher, Patricia Paryz, Jonas Maria Ried, Timm Ulrichs, Super Vivaz: Lina Baltruweit and Johannes Breuninger, Johanna Wagner, Georg Weißbach, André Wendland.

The exhibition is complemented by contributions from students at the Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design (HfG), an international collection of jokes and works from the Westermann Collection.

From July 8 to September 18, 2022

The steel sculptor Rüdiger Seidt (*1965 in Forbach in the Black Forest / lives and works there) uses a constructive-concrete canon of forms to create his steel sculptures. His works are characterized by precision and their spatial effect, which is also fed by the interplay of local surroundings and surface texture. Seidt is now presenting a compact and representative overview of his approximately thirty years of work in a cabinet exhibition at the Städtische Galerie Fruchthalle.

From December 11, 2021 to May 5, 2022

During the renovation-related closure period, the Städtische Galerie Fruchthalle will present graphic collections and contemporary art in the Stadtmuseum. The Rastatt gallery's collection is largely based on the Lütze print collection and the monumental collage by Anselm Kiefer, the museum's most valuable work, is also made up of figurative woodcuts.

The guest performance Grafik! Grafik! at the Stadtmuseum Rastatt focuses on this identity-forming focal point. On display are drawings, etchings, woodcuts and linocuts, i.e. a wide range of graphic art. The exhibits are accompanied by explanations of printing techniques and original printing plates. The Stadtmuseum is also showing reed pen drawings by Karl Hubbuch, which were created between 1944 and 1946. They show views of Favorite Palace, the Pagodenburg and the Rastatt Residential Palace.

In addition to the works from the collections of both museums, an expansive installation and other works by Karlsruhe artist Peco Kawashima (*1979 in Kyoto, Japan/lives and works in Karlsruhe) will also be on display. The works by the 2021 Hanna Nagel Prize winner, all of which are made of paper, relate to the graphic art holdings and thus link the focus on "Art in Baden after 1945" with the present.

From May 1 to October 3, 2021

The basis for the exhibition project On the Quiet is a parcel. It is the simplest and cheapest solution to send something material worldwide, even in times of a pandemic. For On the Quiet, such a package is filled with art. It contains everything needed for the exhibition. The works are then supplemented by elements already available in the respective museum, such as pedestals, screens, wall paint or the labor of the employees. The largest standard package, weighing a maximum of 31.5 kg, forms the framework within which the participating artists move. The exhibition travels around the world in silence, with a small ecological footprint: from the Galerie Stadt Sindelfingen, where the project was first shown, to the Kunsthalle Mannheim, now to the Städtische Galerie Fruchthalle in Rastatt and then to the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Santiago de Chile, then on to China, Mexico or South Africa.

Curated by Carolina Pérez Pallares/ Benjamin Appel/Sebastian Schmitt

Participating artists: Jamika Ajalon/ Benjamin Appel/ Art n More: Paul Bowler and Georg Weißbach/ Silvia Bächli/ Ernst Caramelle/ Eric Hattan/ Schirin Kretschmann / Carolina Pérez Pallares / Marion Porten/ Thomas Rentmeister/ Manuela Ribadeneira/ Tilo Schulz/ Maya Schweizer

From May 1 to October 3, 2021

Lucia Mattes (*1996 in Heidelberg / lives and works in Karlsruhe) deals with phenomena of popular and everyday culture in her works. She translates and comments on them using traditional artistic techniques into a haptic, often soft form. For her work on the ramp in the Fruchthalle, she explores meme culture on the Internet. She has felted tapestries by hand in small pieces that deal with the phenomenon of cat videos as a viral success story on the Internet and sayings as supposed wisdom. The exhibition on the ramp in the Fruchthalle also includes an intervention in the Kabinett Kiefer. Mattes will hang an oversized chain of fabric from the balustrade, thus addressing the situation between monumental collage and museum on several levels. On the one hand, the relationship between the work and the spatial situation will be addressed, as well as the process of museumization of the work itself. In addition, the chain made of soft material is also a tongue-in-cheek examination of the oath of eternal loyalty expressed by the locks on bridge railings.

From February 8 to October 18, 2020

Painter and sculptor Gerhard Neumaier serves up culinary delights in the current Fruchthallen exhibition by placing paintings of dishes on giant plates as if they were real meals. Created intuitively in the process of painting, the pictures thus show "painting times" in which fictitious dishes are imagined in an abstract way and painted in oil. While Daniel Spoerri's EAT Art has been presenting things related to food as a representation in a montage since the 1970s, Gerhard Neumaier's art opens up a new painterly quality of representation and serves up culinary delights as a quasi-edible abstraction in MALZEIT.

From 3 August 2019 to 26 January 2020

Painting and sculpture, surface and space, color and structure, line and form are the themes of the synopsis with partly large-format works by Basel painter Andreas Durrer and sculptor Armin Göhringer. The line in its both abstract and concrete movement and the materiality of the color spaces and wooden blocks play an important role, as do Durrer's lyrical abstractions and Göhringer's ashlar masses held by filigree bridges. The 32 acrylic paintings and 27 wooden sculptures on show in the exhibition also have a tangible approach to weight.

From March to July 21, 2019

On the occasion of his 70th birthday this year, the Städtische Galerie Fruchthalle is showing a large overview of the work of the Solingen-born, Karlsruhe-based photo artist Ralf Cohen, who works exclusively in analog. The exhibition presents series and cycles by the artist from over 40 years of exploring the medium of photography - from the early portraits of well-known personalities such as Walter Scheel to Cohen's fictional images of imaginary islands or the "Neuland" series, in which large-format prints are subjected to further processing and the influence of nature. It becomes clear how versatile Ralf Cohen is in exploiting the photographic possibilities of analog photography and printing techniques.

From October 2018 to March 10, 2019

The artist, who was born in Hüfingen in the Black Forest and lives in Freiburg, initially studied textile design at the Reutlingen University of Applied Sciences and art history at the University of Freiburg, but then switched to the State Academy of Fine Arts Karlsruhe, where she attended Prof. Peter Dreher's painting class from 1975 to 1980. Eva Rosenstiel's oil paintings from the "Marché" series, which are on display on the gallery's ramp bend, are particularly indicative of the fact that she came from Peter Dreher's school. The materiality of the painting medium corresponds in a sculptural way with the fabrics of the piles of clothes that the artist discovered at a Parisian market and first photographed and then translated into painting, in part against photographic backgrounds that show the market place itself and its daily changing structures. In the process, the painting takes on an almost magical realism that allows the textile material to emerge from the surface, as it were.

From February 17 to September 30, 2018

The Städtische Galerie Fruchthalle opened its doors for the first time on June 19, 1993 and has since presented a total of 90 exhibitions with over 250 artists. The 25th anniversary exhibition will showcase selected pieces from the Rastatt Collection, which now consists of more than 1,000 works of art in the fields of sculpture, painting, graphic art and drawing.

From September 2017 to January 28, 2018

The exhibition presents an extensive, carefully selected selection of 110 exhibits of Nino Malfatti's paintings and drawings. The artist, who was born in Innsbruck in 1940 and now lives in Berlin, studied at the Karlsruhe Art Academy from 1967 to 1972. Nino Malfatti is already represented in the Rastatt Collection with an early painting and a drawing from the period after his studies. In these works from the 1970s, which can be seen alongside other early works, a stair railing is placed on the monochrome canvas as a constructive composition in a purposeless and perspectival staggering, and clothespins drawn in pencil in a serial sequence and differentiated black and white tones become the set piece of an equally constructive arrangement. The fine gradation of color tones and the condensed layering create spatial structures that combine aspects of realism and constructivism.

From June 10 to September 17, 2017

In memory of the Pforzheim artist Ulrike Michaelis, who died in 2015, studied at the Karlsruhe Art Academy under Harry Kögler and is represented in the Rastatt Collection with two works. The current exhibition in the Fruchthalle illustrates some decisive phases in the artist's life. In it, she combines an artistically intuitive capacity for abstraction and composition with figurative ciphers of femininity. In her pictorial program, she increasingly resorts to symbolic body fragments and vessel emblems in which expressive gestures of feeling become visible. In doing so, she develops a subtle sense of color, which is usually implemented in a two-dimensional-constructive manner in counterpoint to the figurative elements.

From February 2 to May 28, 2017

In cooperation with the Herbert Weisenburger Foundation, the exhibition presents a selection from the extensive work of the Worms-born, Mannheim-based photo artist, whose work deliberately subverts conventional expectations of the medium of photography. Her color photographs show peripheral situations from different positions, sometimes out of focus or from a great distance, for example as seen through a window pane.

From October 8, 2016 to January 22, 2017

The draughtsman, graphic artist and painter Karl Hubbuch (1891-1979) is one of the outstanding and internationally renowned representatives of New Objectivity, Verism and post-war Expressionism. His studies in Karlsruhe and Berlin had already been interrupted by the First World War, but the Nazi regime and the Second World War interrupted his professorship at the Karlsruhe Art Academy, where he taught again until 1957. As a person and artist, the Karlsruhe-born artist, who died in his home town in 1979, drew the conclusion from the social catastrophes of the 20th century to stand up for social equality and world peace throughout his life. He was particularly concerned with reconciliation with his western neighbor France, whose country and people he appreciated, and which he therefore captured in his pictures on numerous trips.

He was not only connected to Rastatt by his second wife Ellen, but also by his brief activity as a town councillor and his activities in the Antifa movement after the Second World War. During this time, he created numerous drawings of baroque and war-damaged Rastatt.

From April 30 to September 25, 2016

The steel sculpture "L'incontro (The Encounter)" by Italian sculptor Giuliano Vangi has stood on Faneser Platz in Rastatt since 1991. The Fruchthalle Municipal Gallery is showing current works from the last 15 years to mark the artist's 85th birthday and the 30-year town twinning between Fano and Rastatt. The exhibition includes 30 sculptures made of different materials: bronze, nickel, marble, granite, wood and ivory. Vangi sometimes mixes different materials in one object, thereby increasing the degree of animation of the sitter, whereby the figurines are also implanted with glass eyes and prosthetic teeth. In the largest work in the exhibition, the sculpture "Veio", which is twelve meters long, Vangi even uses a motorcycle, a "Triumph Tiger", to increase the authenticity. The artist also demonstrates his mastery of traditional carving techniques in two life-size, painted sculptures made of alder and lime wood.

From January 21 to April 17, 2016

The spring 2016 exhibition at Städtische Galerie Fruchthalle presents the work of Susanne Zetzmann in a comprehensive exhibition. Born in Bremen and based in Baden-Baden for over 15 years, the artist, who studied textile design at the Stuttgart Art Academy in the 1970s, offers an insight into her diverse oeuvre in this retrospective show. In over 40 years of freelance work, she has changed her "style" several times and experimentally changed and expanded her artistic means of expression. The spectrum ranges from gestural colorfulness, whose abstraction contains both figurative and narrative elements, to a phase in which she worked monochrome and constructively, to sculptural objects, some of which take on the character of assemblages and installations.

From September 24, 2015 to January 10, 2016

Under the title "TRANS-FORM", this year's autumn exhibition at Städtische Galerie Fruchthalle illustrates the changes in contemporary art and painting by presenting different artist personalities and their works across generations and placing them in relation to each other in a specially designed staging course.

From May 14 to September 13, 2015

In cooperation with the Herbert Weisenburger Foundation, the Städtische Galerie Fruchthalle is showing a retrospective selection of the paintings of Manfred Garstka, an artist from East Prussia who now lives in the Odenwald, as part of its summer presentation and in conjunction with works from the Rastatt Collection. The show offers an exemplary view of the artist's work genesis and spans an arc from his works of the 1950s to his current oeuvre. It becomes clear that Manfred Garstka's individual phases of work are based on the respective trends of the time, such as Pop Art and New Figuration, as well as on outstanding individual artists such as Francis Bacon, Matta or Hans Bellmer, yet he always retains his very own style. The overview of his work also makes it clear that his formal language, which consistently intersperses his purely abstract imaginations with corporeal, surreal set pieces, has become more expressive and pictorially immanent in the course of its development.

From February 5 to May 3, 2015

The spring exhibition at the Städtische Galerie Fruchthalle illustrates the supra-regional influence of Baden art. After twelve years of teaching, the Freiburg painter and former master student of Peter Dreher, Ralph Fleck, ended his professorship at the Nuremberg Art Academy in summer 2014. Widely known for his impasto paintings, the artist knew how to pass on his technical experience and skills in working with oil paint to his students, as well as conveying the indestructible appeal of the panel painting.

From October 16, 2014 to January 25, 2015

Chromatic abstractions from the past ten years by Freiburg painter Ben Hübsch are on display under the motto FIT IN COLOR. With 56 works, the artist, direct descendant of Karlsruhe architect Heinrich Hübsch, master student of Prof. Peter Dreher at the Karlsruhe Art Academy and Professor of Fine Arts at the University of Fine Arts, Design and Popular Music in Freiburg, presents a selection of virtuoso color sounds that are comparable to tonal compositions in music in their immanent movement and energetic setting.

From May 15 to October 5, 2014

The Städtische Galerie Fruchthalle Rastatt takes up the theme of the decade in an overview. In more than 50 exhibits from the collection, the exhibition shows a broad spectrum of artistic assertions of the kind described above, in which it becomes clear that the tendency towards individualization forms a counter-current to the egalitarian uniformity of emerging globalization. The exhibited artists include such well-known personalities as Alfonso Hüppi, Lothar Quinte, Wolf Pehlke, Armin Göhringer, Sabine Funke, Stephan Balkenhol, Renate Koch, Vera Röhm, AGNESS, Hildegard Fuhrer, Karl Heinz Bux, Johanna Helbling-Felix and many others.

From February 1 to May 4, 2014

In its spring exhibition from February 1 to May 4, 2014, Städtische Galerie Fruchthalle Rastatt is showing current works by Karlsruhe-based artist Agnes Märkel, who studied under Horst Egon Kalinowski at the Karlsruhe Art Academy and has already received numerous awards. The large-format works on paper on display bring two media into dialog with each other, photography and pastel, and are therefore bimedial. Each pictorial idea begins with a complex arrangement of photographs, which are spread across the picture surface and expanded and reinterpreted through the pastel drawing. The photographic elements are embedded as sections of reality, as a picture within a picture, in the sometimes seemingly fantastic scenarios. In contrast to conventional collage, however, the photographs are neither cropped nor overdrawn by the pastel, but are optically interwoven with the drawing in such a way that the two media are indistinguishable from one another at first glance. The rough surface of the hand drawing and the smoothness of the digital print merge into a vivid now and alternately "cross borders", which is also the title of the exhibition.

From October 3, 2013 to January 19, 2014

In its autumn exhibition, the Städtische Galerie Fruchthalle Rastatt is showing a retrospective of Hildegard Fuhrer's paintings from 1967 to 2013. Born in Schwäbisch Gmünd, the artist studied at the Karlsruhe Academy under Prof. Albrecht von Hancke and art history at the University of Karlsruhe. The exhibition is symbolically under the sign of the butterfly, as Hildegard Fuhrer's more than 40 years of painting development show essential, pictorial-genetic transformation steps that can be metaphorically equated with the changeful and wondrous metamorphosis of the butterfly. Just as the butterfly changes from egg to larva and from pupa to butterfly, Hildegard Fuhrer's work undergoes development-related, symbolic and emblematic changes of motif of a comparable nature, both in the pictorial themes and in the use of painting media.

From May 18 to September 22, 2013

In the twenty years since the Fruchthalle Municipal Gallery was founded and opened its doors for the first time on June 18, 1993, there has been a continuous stream of exhibitions. In addition to numerous thematically weighted exhibitions of existing works, well over 100 artists, particularly from the southwest region, have been shown in solo and group exhibitions. In conjunction with the exhibition program, the Rastatt Collection has been successively expanded and, together with the objects in the Westermann Collection, now comprises around 1,000 works of art. Over the past two decades, more than 130,000 visitors have found their way to the gallery.

From January 31 to May 5, 2013

In its spring exhibition "VorOrt - Achtfach", the Städtische Galerie Fruchthalle is presenting a show of works by eight artists who live in Rastatt and the surrounding area. The exhibition takes a look at the creative artistic field of the baroque town and places it in the context of art in Baden after 1945, without claiming to paint a complete picture of the existing potential and all the artistic positions active in the town. The selection is limited to people who have not yet exhibited in the Fruchthalle. Their number is as determined as it is arbitrary. Although Heidrun Dautner, Albert Kiefer, Gerd Nöldner, Gina Plunder, Klaus Ruschmann, Paul Sachse, Henning Schwarz and Ralf Taller live and work locally, most of them have never met before. Their meeting for the exhibition was a mixture of chance and selection.

From September 14, 2012 to January 13, 2013

Rolf-Gunter Dienst's solo exhibition on the occasion of his 70th birthday pays tribute to an artistic personality who has made and continues to make his mark beyond the region with his works and his singular position in both art criticism and art creation over the past 50 years. It is no coincidence that the exhibition bears the title "I'll just keep on", as it expresses the ongoing desire for artistic production that continues to drive the artist, as well as the serial creative process that runs through his entire oeuvre

From 17 May to 2 September 2012

Carlos Granger represents an important position of non-representational sculpture after 1945 and in the 1960s was one of the artists who, in the environment of the legendary St. Martin's School of Art in London, realized sculptures in a new way using contemporary industrial materials in a reduced, primarily linear formal language. From 1973 to 1982, he interrupted his sculptural activity and turned to photographing still lifes and landscapes before, within a few years, finding his way to the concise, yet precisely elaborated form of sculpture that still characterizes his work today.

From February 3 to May 6, 2012

The English verb "to frame", which has many, sometimes contradictory meanings - to formulate, to form, to frame someone - forms the bracket, the connecting element that brings together and relates the different groups of works shown in the exhibition. These are exhibits that require a second look. Nothing is revealed in passing. For example, the portraits from the work cycle "The Hitler Project" are largely montages in which the body parts of different models are combined to form a new whole. In this context, Hannah Arendt's concept of the "banality of evil" takes on a new virulence.