Sandwiched between holidays and festivals, January is actually doing surprisingly well. Art shows are plenty, free and really good. Welcome to 2016!

THURSDAY 14.01

17.00 Lada Nakonechna – "Die Musik bricht ab. Die Gäste sind verlegen. Pause." @ Galerie EIGEN + ART

WHY: In her drawings, installations, videos, and performances, Lada Nakonechna confronts the viewer with images of current events and pictorial experiences from collective memory, which she manipulates or distorts. Alhough she cannot be pinned down to a single medium, for her there is no better means than the pencil for expressing temporality.As an artist who lives in Ukraine but often works and exhibits within the European Union, crossing boundaries and migrating are also part of her own biography and identity.

Galerie EIGEN + ART / Auguststr. 26, 10117 Berlin, U Rosenthaler Platz / open through 06.02 / free entry / more info

18.00 Christian Jankowski – "Retrospektive" / Markus Bacher – "River Deep Mountain High" @ CFA

WHY: For his solo show at CFA, Christian Jankowski collaborated with the actress Nina Hoss, who was given the curatorial role. The presentation will consist of three parts: a cinema, in which videos and films between 1992 – 2015 will be played; an exhibition space, where film sets and sculptural installations are reserved; and an area with TV works, which can be individually remote controlled by the visitors. Concurrently, CFA will host the third solo exhibition with the Los Angeles based artist Markus Bacher, who will be showing his new large format paintings.

CFA Contemporary Fine Arts / Am Kupfergraben 10, 10117 Berlin, S+U Friedrichstr. / open through 05.03 / free entry / more info

18.00 Quayola – "Iconographies" @ NOME

WHY: Quayola’s "Iconographies" are part of an ongoing project that analyzes Renaissance and Baroque paintings through computational methods. The artist transforms religious and mythological scenes into complex abstract formations, creating alternative versions of the old masterpieces by removing the paintings from their historical narratives. For this exhibition, Quayola will present his newest anodized aluminum engravings and Ditone prints, which reimagine paintings by masters such as Botticelli, Rubens, and Caravaggio.

NOME / Dolziger Str. 31, 10247 Berlin, S+U Frankfurter Allee / open through 05.03 / free entry / more info

19.00 Concert & Drinks: Jazz Nights w/ Jazz-Institut-Berlin @ Deutsche Bank Kunsthalle

WHY: In the frame of the ongoing exhibition, "Jackson Pollock's 'Mural': Energy Made Visible", students of the Jazz Institute Berlin will play Swing, Modern Jazz and Improvisation; with Olga Amelchenko, alto saxophone/ Musina Ebobissé, tenor saxophone/ Fyodor Stepanov, double bass/ LudwigWandinger, drums. ArtCafé at the Deutsche Bank KunstHalle will serve drinks and snacks.

Deutsche Bank Kunsthalle / Unter den Linden 13-15, 10117 Berlin, U Französische Str. / more info

FRIDAY 15.01

18.00 transmediale + CTM Vorspiel @ ACUD MACHT NEU

WHY: Vorspiel is the pre-festival program leading up to transmediale/conversationpiece and CTM – New Geographies from 15.01 until 07.02, which brings together cultural institutions, independent spaces, and individuals dealing with digital culture. The opening event will take place on 15.01 at ACUD MACHT NEU, with a panel discussion, artist talk, performances, installations, and afterparty.

ACUD MACHT NEU / Veteranenstr. 21, 10119 Berlin, U Rosenthaler Platz / more info 

SATURDAY 16.01

14.00 Temporary Artist's Book Shop #TABS 2 @ LAGE EGAL

WHY: For the duration of the exhibition, LAGE EGAL becomes a bookstore/ reading library named #TABS, where the public will be able to look through, peruse, and purchase books and editions. It will be a big celebration of the object book, ideated and made by artists. The book, as a specific artwork, will be displayed in its transgenic form and use, which includes word and image, sight, and touch. Opening recpetion will tke place over two says: Saturday 14 – 21h, and Sunday 14 – 18h.

LAGE EGAL / Linienstr.141, 10115 Berlin, U Oranienburger Tor / open through 26.03 / more info

18.00 Expanded Fields @ Nymphius Projekte

WHY: The group exhibition „Expanded Fields“ is referring to the iconic essay „Sculpture in the Expanded Field“ by the art historian Rosalind Krauss, extending the theme to other media, such as painting, relief, and photography. It features works by 30 international artists coming from different backgrounds, and working with different media, while sharing an interest in constructivist building principles. With the choice of not more than a few colors – black, white, grey, silver, dark blue and green  – and further reduction of means and methods, the conceptual impact of this exhibition is accentuated, emphasizing the surprising spectrum of artistic production.

Nymphius Projekte / Bayerischer Platz 5, 10799 Berlin, U Bayerischer Platz / open through 16.04 / more info

THURSDAY 21.01

19.00 Anette Rose – “Captured Motion” @ Haus am Lützowplatz

WHY: “Captured Motion” examines processes of industrial automation that increasingly impact our working environments. It is a continuation of Anette Rose´s long-term project “Encyclopaedia of Manual Operations”. Rose observes how manual work is replaced by machines, but also how hands explain machines with gestures. On display is a spatio-temporal montage of hitherto unexhibited videos, which Rose filmed as an artist-in-residence at the Institute for Textile Technology, and the Motion Capture Laboratory at the RWTH Aachen.

Haus am Lützowplatz / Lützowplatz 9, 10785 Berlin, U Nollendorfplatz / open through 06.03 / free entry / more info 

FRIDAY 22.01

19.00 Anna Oppermann @ Galerie Barbara Thumm

WHY: Anna Oppermann occupies a prominent synthesizing position in the visual arts of the 1960s and 70s, when she began creating installations, „Ensembles“, containing references to Pop Art, Arte Povera, and Conceptual Art. Assembled using found objects, photographs, sketches, personal texts, quotations, and colored photographic screens, these installations were often misinterpreted by contemporaries as biographical statements. The artist’s intention, however, was to use these complex works to trigger the viewer’s thought process, and to show that they could always be understood in new and different ways.

Galerie Barbara Thumm / Markgrafenstrasse 68, 10969 Berlin, U Kochstrasse / open through 16.04 / more info