Karen Kilimnik in the Kunstverein
November 7, 2026–February 28, 2027
Opening: November 6, 2026, at 7pm
Kunstverein in Hamburg
Karen Kilimnik: ABRACADABRA
November 21, 2026–March 29, 2027
Opening: November 20, 2026, at 6pm
Centro per l'Arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci, Prato
The Kunstverein in Hamburg is pleased to announce the exhibition Karen Kilimnik in the Kunstverein curated by Milan Ther and Sarah Messerschmidt, to open on November 6, 2026, at 7pm. Throughout her oeuvre, Karen Kilimnik has integrated things as disparate as classical ballet, landscapes, and Old Master traditions with modern society. Drawing on fairy tales, baroque paintings, and the news, and working across a range of media, Kilimnik’s visual language is at once colourful, delicate, and enigmatic, unfolding a character that is unmistakably her own. As the first institutional survey in Germany in over 25 years, the Kunstverein is transformed into a stately manor house, and brings together several decades of Kilimnik’s work across a range of media, including oil paintings, works on paper, and mises-en-scène.
Centro Pecci presents Karen Kilimnik: ABRACADABRA, an expansive exhibition bringing together unseen and existing works from across five decades of Kilimnik’s art, to open on November 20, 2026, at 6pm. Curated by Stefano Collicelli Cagol and Michele Bertolino, Abracadabra approaches the artist’s work through a focus on magic as the central theme within her oeuvre. The title intends to also highlight her use of language and words—which frequently appear both in her early drawings and in the titles of her paintings—that are like magic spells that transfigure images and materials drawn from everyday life. The exhibition comprises more than one hundred works ranging from the 1980s to the present day, and is presented across five rooms of the museum, bringing together the different media the artist has used throughout her career.
Karen Kilimnik in the Kunstverein and ABRACADABRA form two coordinated yet distinct exhibitions, developed in cooperation between the Kunstverein in Hamburg and Centro per l'Arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci, Prato, to create a joint survey of Kilimnik’s recent and historical work. Together, these entwined exhibitions allow audiences to experience five decades of Kilimnik’s singular practice in new and expanded ways, bringing together a selection of her landmark works with recent paintings and sculptures.
Events
Curators’ Tour
November 25, 7pm
with Milan Ther and Sarah Messerschmidt
Lecture by Michele Bertolino
February 10, 7pm
