“14057 Berlin-Charlottenburg” is the association of galleries, project spaces and studios in the neighbourhood between Lietzensee and Amtsgerichtsplatz. Each venue has its own programme and its own signature. What they share is the postcode and the wish to make art in the neighbourhood more visible.

Kunst bis Mitternacht is the evening they host together: on Friday, 20 November 2026, every door is open from 6 pm to midnight – with painting, prints, sculpture, sound, readings and music, on foot from door to door. The walk starts at the meeting point, ParkSide Gallery on Dernburgstraße.

At GALERIE 15, “Der Philosoph” by Volkmar Förster is on view that evening, with a signing session for the book of the same name.

At the centre of the exhibition “Der Philosoph” are the original works by Volkmar Förster: 28 drawings and ten colour acrylic works, created as independent pictorial responses to 38 rhymed texts by Armin Gröpler. Förster's pictures narrate, condense and transform the literary motifs and open up spaces, figures and situations of their own – by turns comic, abysmal, quiet and thoughtful.

Armin Gröpler's texts are the starting point and the counterpart of the pictures. In six rhymed lines each, Gröpler sketches the ironic, bizarre, fictional biography of an intellectual who wrestles with the great questions of life as much as with his everyday adversities – pointed, with dry humour, down to the laconic final verdict: “Sein Leben war durchaus verpatzt.”

Förster does not illustrate these verses in the conventional sense. His works stand opposite the texts as an independent artistic position. Words become pictures, punchlines become scenes, thoughts give rise to new associations.

In the book of the same name, “Der Philosoph”, image and text finally meet as equals. The exhibition deliberately reverses this dialogue: it first gives the original pictures the space and lets the texts resonate alongside. This makes visible how a pictorial world grows out of a literary idea – and how the two come together again as a whole in the book.

“Mathematically speaking, one could say that the capacity for unriddling is the inverse function of dreaming. By day it unpacks what was condensed in sleep and shifts it with the sign reversed. Yet unlike a mathematical inverse function, the capacity for unriddling is not unambiguous. It remains in the realm of supposing, trying and groping. And what emerges from it becomes part of the day's experience and can thus be re-riddled in the next sleep together with other parts of memory.” (From the exhibition text by Oliver Arendt.)

Four younger artists from Berlin whose work revolves around the night side of life while also leaving room for daydreams. Artworks for musing, reflecting and dreaming on.

Oliver Arendt draws, writes, collects, sorts, builds and programs. This gives rise to artefacts with a life of their own, which usually have a mathematical and technical origin but also take on creaturely traits. They form the mental space that is traversed entirely subjectively in the artistic work.

Tabea Ćubelić investigates dreams, memories and the riddles of origin. Her drawings and objects both reflect and embody the mental and material finds she makes in the process.

Fritz Poppenberg paints and draws. In doing so he is committed to the history of painting and, in this exhibition, also to that of the classic comic. His work negotiates the time from childhood and youth to adulthood; the Romantic concept of art and its conventions; and the melancholy of a time already lost to us.

Julia Werhahn is concerned with collective fears and longings. In her work she explores the fragility of inner structures that carry within them the sense of a crumbling existence. Transparent reliefs and sculptures, into which complex feelings such as trust, scepticism or an all-encompassing powerlessness are worked, form the focus of her work.

Part of the Invitation series of the Michael Thomas Schröder Foundation at Galerie 15.

The city is not an unambiguous place. It is promise and imposition, encounter and isolation, order and rupture all at once. For decades artists have engaged with this field of tension – not in order to resolve it, but to make its contradictions visible.

The positions gathered in this exhibition likewise present no uniform view of the urban. Rather, they unfold different, at times contrary perspectives: the city appears as structured space and as fragile fabric, as a place of collective experience and individual lostness, as an engine of change and as a stage of standstill.

It is precisely in this ambiguity that its artistic power lies. The city eludes simple interpretations – and constantly calls for new images, new approaches, new questions.

The exhibition sees itself as an open field for this engagement. It invites us not to pin the city down, but to see it anew in its complexity and contradictoriness.

VOLKER KAMINSKI, born in Karlsruhe, studied German literature and philosophy in Freiburg and Berlin, where he lives as a freelance writer. In addition to short stories, columns (Berliner Zeitung) and reviews, he has published numerous novels (e.g. “Rot wie Schnee”, “Auf Probe”, “Der Gestrandete”). PalmArtPress has so far published “Herzhand” (2021), “RUA 17” (2023) and “Die letzte Prüfung” (2024, revised new edition). Since 2014 he has been a lecturer at the Alice Salomon Hochschule in Berlin, where he teaches on a master's programme in Creative Writing. He has received several grants, including the Alfred Döblin Fellowship, the grant of the Kunststiftung Baden-Württemberg and the Künstlerhaus Edenkoben residency grant.

At Galerie15, the Berlin author reads from his new novel “SCHÖNES leben”, accompanied by Karl Wunsch on saxophone.

About the novel:

Sixteen-year-old Viktor does not have it easy. To escape his parents' fierce quarrels, he creates a world of beauty of his own and develops a passion for painting. After his mother and sisters move out, he is left behind with his father, who numbs the pain of the shattered dream of a large family with alcohol. Viktor is accepted at the art academy but has to defend himself against the attacks of his father, who rejects Viktor's career choice. In the struggle for recognition, wavering between understanding and hatred, Viktor develops into a headstrong painter, supported by his professor and the life model Irm. The pub conversations of the art students reflect the zeitgeist of the 1980s.

www.volkerkaminski.wordpress.com

A cross-section exhibition of the collection with works by nine of the Foundation's artists, shown at GALERIE15 until 17 May 2026.

In her solo exhibition “Inmost / Almost”, the Berlin-based French artist Anne Dérian presents two contrasting sides of her artistic work. Both gallery rooms are used to make different approaches to material, form and process tangible.

The first room, “Inmost”, invites quiet contemplation. In a meditative atmosphere, works emerge that – inspired by mandalas – lead to inner reflection and contemplative perception. Here the focus is on a sensory experience of art beyond language. “Almost”, in the second room, shows an energetic, fragmented aesthetic. The title is a playful allusion to the phrase “Almost finished” and refers to the artist's precise but time-intensive approach. The focus here is on the dissection of surfaces, materiality and colour-induced emotions. During the exhibition, Anne Dérian will also use the space as a studio – the creative process thus becomes part of the exhibition and can be experienced live by visitors.

Anne Dérian lives and works in Berlin. After several years as an architect she turned to the visual arts. Her works – from drawings to sculptural objects – combine her architectural background with a deeply personal, intuitive approach. Geometry, modular structures, the play of light and shadow, and a sensitive feel for colour and material characterise her works.

Volkmar Förster with some thoughts on the exhibition

Why does an atheist paint pictures on the Bible?

Not baptised, not confirmed, socialised in the former GDR – I had few points of contact with Christianity. The decision at the age of fourteen between Jugendweihe and confirmation, a problem that many of my friends' parents faced, did not arise for me. Only late, during my studies, did I read Thomas Mann's magnificent novel cycle “Joseph und seine Brüder”; that reading still resonates with me today. It was my very first encounter with Christian mythology at all. In my stage-design diploma project “Urfaust” the “Gretchen question” is posed: “Now tell me, how do you stand with religion? I believe you are a thoroughly good man, only I think you do not hold much of it.”

Faith plays a quite essential role among ordinary people; it is the cornerstone of ethical and moral conduct as a whole. Karl Marx wrote in 1848: “Religion is the opium of the people.” Lenin turned this into: “Religion is opium for the people.” This religion-critical attitude shaped the educational policy of the GDR. The Church with its two confessions did exist, though tolerated rather than welcomed. It was a marginal phenomenon of social life.

If I were to describe my development as a visual artist, I began as a landscape painter. Working directly in front of nature, sitting before the motif, a feeling very often arose, an awe at the magnificence of creation. Pantheism, also in Goethe's sense, is very close to me. “God is nature”, as a religious feeling of admiration. After engaging with the human figure – life drawing is the prerequisite – I ventured into mythological themes. In 2000 “Ikarus” at the Kunstwandelhalle Bad Elster, followed by many works, performances and exhibitions on the Nibelungen saga.

The garden, the miniature format of nature so to speak, has always been the focus of my efforts.

Most of my great colleagues painted their gardens at the end of their lives. So did I. In 2002 I portrayed our garden around the house. Twelve small-format oil paintings, drawings, and colour and black-and-white woodcuts emerged. From this developed the idea of populating our garden with Adam and Eve. Consequently I came upon the Old Testament. For the first time I read the original texts of Genesis, which fascinated me immediately. There is no more beautiful sentence than: “Let there be light”

The first picture with this title was followed by 19 more in a dramaturgical sequence: the creation of the world, the fall of man, and ending with the birth and crucifixion of Christ, that is, with the New Testament. Countless visual artists, from the past to the present day, have created magnificent works of art on these themes. A great challenge for me in any case.

During the work, questions arose about the meaningfulness of the project. What significance did the Christian myth have for the development of humanity? Are the teachings of Christ still relevant to our present?

The concept of equality before the law, a fundamental principle of Western legal principles, including the abolition of slavery, the development of workers' rights, the establishment of social welfare systems – they all bear the imprint of Christ's teachings on human dignity and social justice. International law is enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, which is consistent with the teachings of Jesus. It must be noted that these fundamental human rights are violated again and again, to this day.

While painting the pictures I was aware of this problem and tried to break new ground in form and content.

Ismael Duá has committed himself to a format. Since 2006 the Berlin-based artist has worked exclusively in the DIN A4 format. It was a long road, however, to this uniform standard, which was published on 18 August 1922.

For Duá it was a decision, and today the norm is for him both subject and research tool – not only on paper.

From studies in multiple materials, his work has in recent years wrapped itself around a core of painting. The uniform limitation to the smallest of spaces makes possible an exploration of patterns, attitudes and weighting. In depth, the individual picture – through its equal place in the body of work as a whole – is free.

“Everything in the world” interests Ismael Duá, who first studied international politics in Wales and then fine art in Munich. Under Professor Andreas von Weizsäcker he discovered his preference for small formats, under Professor Magdalena Jetelová the uncompromising eye for the whole – and thanks to Professor Jean-Marc Bustamante he found his way back to painting.

Ismael Duá was born in Berlin in 1981; his second home is Conakry, Guinea. He now lives in Neukölln, where, alongside his artistic work, he runs a small restaurant. There, on Karl-Marx-Platz, he curated the project “KAPi TAL” for ten years – a format specialising in artist talks.

The choice of title “Stadt, Land, Kunst!” reflects the thematic richness and comprehensive oeuvre of Werner Brunner, an artist who lives and works in Berlin. And his biography is as varied as his work: born in Munich in 1941, a trained blacksmith from Oberammergau, aircraft mechanic, active as an architect and in archaeological building research. Even before his trade as a blacksmith, art, architecture and archaeology had been Werner Brunner's desired professions. After studying architecture and working as an architect, however, he could not identify with the architecture of the 1960s and 70s and opened himself up towards art. In Berlin in 1977, with the founding of the “Künstlergruppe Ratgeb” (in memory of Jörg Ratgeb, a contemporary of Albrecht Dürer), Werner Brunner became a professional artist. Alongside studio work, the group's great success soon came with mural painting, to which Brunner also devotes himself as an author and publicist.

At the same time, further pictorial themes soon developed for Brunner in the studio, such as architecture in city and countryside, space and ornament, the post-war period, or the Ark and Atlas.

Brunner's biography and professional background determine his work. He repeatedly examines the tension between human beings and their lived environment and thus finds his creative expression. He uses newspaper reports, photographs, statistical diagrams and quotations, assembles and overpaints his material, lets it disappear into the grand painterly expression or flash up or shimmer through ironically (occasionally also maliciously).

A selection of Brunner's paintings and collages with a thematic focus on city, countryside and architecture will now be on view from 19 June to 3 August at Galerie 15 in Charlottenburg.

Works by Werner Steinbrecher, born in 1946 in Visbek in Lower Saxony and raised in Düsseldorf, can now finally be seen in Berlin again. He spent 15 years in the former western part of the city – painting, drawing, thinking, questioning – before moving to the countryside in 1989, to Allenbostel near Uelzen, in search of calm, meditation and a time out. He first studied architecture in Aachen and later art at the art academies in Nuremberg and Berlin, and taught as a lecturer at institutions including the University of Lüneburg. His works were shown in numerous exhibitions throughout his life, and many of them can still be seen today in public spaces and museums such as the Berlinische Galerie. In 2008 Werner Steinbrecher died far too early in Bardowick.

Whether during his studies at HdK Berlin, in the studio at his artistic work, in friendships and conversations – Werner Steinbrecher sought depth and meaning. Despite the impressive range of themes in his works, he never merely scratches the surface. In content as in technique, he displayed enormous meticulousness throughout his life. He was a gifted artist who constantly questioned, in his art, his own self, his environment and the effect of art on society and other people.

In his initially large-format oil paintings, Werner Steinbrecher responded to the development of the social and political situation of the 1960s to 1980s: the Vietnam War, the student revolt, the Red Army Faction (RAF) and the “Deutscher Herbst”, as well as the beginnings of environmental activism and feminism.

Pedro Reis de Mendonça opened the #INVITATION series in September 2024 with his exhibition “Zwischen Licht und Struktur”. Like the shimmering of treetops or water surfaces in light and wind, his paintings build up layer by layer. With small, repeated gestures reminiscent of music, the artist – born in Rio de Janeiro and living and working in Berlin – applies colours taken straight from the tube. For him, forgoing the mixing of oil paints has the appeal of a permanently reliable palette whose components also retain their clarity and luminosity.

With each layer, composed of many individual marks, Reis de Mendonça approaches a composition that finds its own stability. Sometimes large-format on canvas, sometimes small-format on fibreboard – each with its own aesthetic. Besides the resistance of the painting ground, the fibreboards also offer the possibility of creating freer formats. To these MDF shapes he not only adds paint but also removes it, working lines, structures and patterns into them with a Dremel. The panels created in this way, which are also suitable for relief printing techniques, have led him to printmaking. Since he prints without a press, the prints are made on delicate paper.