Artists

Li Jun, Hong Zeiss, Edin Zenun, Charlotte Klobassa, Otto Zitko, Judith Eisler, Minda Andrén, Dejan Dukic, Kallirroi Ioannidou, Xenia Lesniewski, Timur Lukas, Claus Hugo Nielsen, Rudolf Polanszki, Titania Seidl

Press release

In Buddhism, "weather" is a metaphor for the fleeting nature of emotions. They come and go like clouds, in constant change—and are not the true self resting within. When one is overwhelmed by difficult feelings, it helps to remember the primal state of the eternally blue sky, which is only hidden by the clouds. At the same time, the disruptive weather changed by climate change, triggering fires, floods, droughts, and geopolitical catastrophes, is an expression of the instability of our time. The shockwaves we experience through wars, genocides, the decay of democracies, inequality, the advance of AI, and totalitarian systems that cannibalize our social infrastructures also make our ideas of values, identity, and community appear fleeting and unstable like the weather. A storm is brewing and many people are or feel defenseless, literally without an umbrella.

Art, culture, and painting are instrumentalized and politicized in the so-called culture wars, or adapt to prevailing market pressures in a commodified and Instagram-ready way—while at the same time, idiosyncrasy, empathy, inspiration, and democratic commitment are expected from art. In this climate, the exhibition The Weather of Our Times, curated by Carsten Fock, takes up questions that are currently virulent: How can painting escape this polarization? Can it be relevant in terms of form and content without processing themes or theses, without clearly referring to social reality? Can it deal with formal questions, painterly processes, materials, and itself in a contemporary way? And how do we get out of this echo chamber of the early 21st century, in which the past overshadows the future, in which the old melodies of history echo instead of the symphonies of tomorrow?

The Weather of Our Times presents 15 positions from the gallery program and specially invited guests whose painting is based on different practices, processes, and strategies, but who are united by the fact that they are not tied to fixed narratives. The focus is on opening up to uncertainty in painting, focusing on process and material, and searching for poetic, hermetic visual languages that do not want to be co-opted. The participants refer to the history of painting, formulating references to Romanticism, Modernism, and Postmodernism, which are however repeatedly and critically broken. The spectrum ranges from established positions inspired by Informel and Abstract Expressionism to young, digitally influenced artists who expand painting to include performance, installation, and sculptural practice.

Oliver Koerner von Gustorf, 2025