Art Karlsruhe 2026

Thursday, 5. – Sunday, 8 February 2026

Messe Karlsruhe Halle 2 – Stand E14

After Dr. Dorothea van der Koelen focused on hope in 2025 in connection with the Holy Year proclaimed by Pope Francis, the gallery presentations in 2026 will focus on the theme of overcoming boundaries. “Borders”, according to the gallerist, “are the source of many problems.” Humanity’s greatest strength is the pooling of its resources: cooperation. Borders – whether on the map or in the mind – aim to achieve the opposite: emphasizing differences instead of seeking common ground. That is why we focus on the unifying effect of art that overcomes borders.

The art and artists at Gallery van der Koelen are highly international, thus overcoming territorial boundaries. The dialogue between cultures – as opposed to the dialogue of weapons – is our priority. With their unusual artistic imagery, they also overcome traditional boundaries, because, as Uecker says, “Artistic creativity is fundamentally at odds with established norms; otherwise, it is not creative.” And thirdly, they transcend boundaries in ideas and thinking by reformulating the questions of the world. This is our opportunity as viewers to come up with different, new ideas and perhaps solutions, and that gives us hope and a future.

In addition to the prominent artists featured in the one:artist show and sculpture:spot, this year’s focus is on Christian Megert, who is celebrating his 90th birthday this year and to whom we are dedicating a major solo exhibition on the first floor of the Cadoro Center for Art and Science in Mainz. We are also celebrating the anniversaries of François Morellet, who would have turned 100 this year and whose wonderful Cruibes work we are exhibiting, and Hellmut Bruch, who is enriching our stand with his exquisite works made of fluorescent acrylic glass (90th birthday).

We are looking forward to personally welcome you to our booth E14 in hall 2.

The one:artist show 2026 will feature internationally renowned paper artist Lore Bert (*1936), who is celebrating her 90th birthday this year and will be presenting an epoch-making installation in the Church of San Fantin parallel to the Venice Art Biennale. There she will be showing her integrated work of art Towards the Light, featuring neon works, large-scale installations, and large-format pictorial objects.

For more than four decades, Lore Bert’s artistic work has been characterized by her use of Far Eastern papers, which often take on a spatial dimension. The collages, pictorial objects, transparencies, and sculptures she has been creating since the early 1980s, and shortly thereafter installations ranging from entire paper rooms to environments, demonstrate the artist’s interest in material and form, but also in space and surroundings. Paper is her preferred material.

Lore Bert has been represented at several biennials: in 1999 as artist of honor at the Sharjah Biennial (United Arab Emirates), in 2011 as artist of honor at the Izmir Biennial (Turkey), and in 2013 she presented an ‘Evento Collaterale’ at the 55th Venice Art Biennial at the Correr Museum under the title Art & Knowledge – The Spirit of the Place in the 5 Platonic Solids, which attracted more than 105,000 visitors and was recognized as one of the top 10 cultural events in Italy that summer.

Parallel to the Venice Art Biennale 2019, the artist showed her breathtaking installation Illumination – Ways to Eureka in the Church of San Samuele in Venice. In December 2021, Lore Bert was honored with the prestigious Signs Award in the art category, known as the “Oscar of the communications” (ntv).

The booth will feature recent relief objects from the last few years, as well as the large-format fan painting (180 x 180 cm) planned for the 2026 Biennale and light works related to the Biennale presentation.

In 2026, sculpture:spot will feature the young artist duo Carolin Liebl & Nikolas Schmid-Pfähler. While studying art at the Offenbach University of Art and Design, they already found their artistic expression through their choice of media: they work with different technologies that form the content and aesthetic material of their works. Their works are often sculptural, sometimes kinetic or robotic, and often installation-based. For example, they use electricity to set metal, plastic, and wires in motion. The technology is not hidden but aesthetically staged.

The young artists explore the effects of technical developments on aesthetic and social aspects of human and non-human life. The medium — technology — is both a vehicle for social conventions and a visual material. Despite the beauty of the materials used, the precision of the construction, and the rigor of the concept, their works reveal a great deal of humor and emotion in their kinetic movement.

At Art Karlsruhe 2026, we will present their latest sculpture entitled Mega Fluff in the ‘Sculpture’ Spots section, along with a colorful bouquet of Flowers made from the same material at our booth. This colorful creation made of lightweight plastic was already prominently displayed in 2025 in the outdoor area of the Künstlerhaus Ziegelhütte in Darmstadt, Hesse. At the same time, we will be showing two works from the Lineas series, one of which is currently on display in the ZKM collection exhibition in Karlsruhe.