Galerie Kremers in Berlin-Kreuzberg invites you to an artist talk with curator, art historian, and art critic Marc Gisbourne on April 28, 2026, at 7 p.m. Artists Fiona Ackerman, Claudia Chaseling, and Gregor Hiltner will be present in person, while Juan Logan and Howard Sherman will join via video call from the United States.
Image Above: Adochi, Maske-Padak, 1987, Distemper paint on canvas, 190 x 200 cm
The exhibition “The New Abstract – An Atlantic Bridge – USA – BERLIN” at Berlin’s Galerie Kremers is a continuation of the 2019 exhibition, which showcased both established and emerging artists from both sides of the Atlantic. Given the deteriorating political relations, one might expect a breakdown rather than the rebuilding of bridges, but not in the realm of art.
Ever since the days of De Kooning and Kurt Schwitters, a dialogue has been taking place across the transatlantic divide in the universal language of painting, through which the artists have mutually influenced and enriched one another. Social media and the globalization of the art market have further intensified this trend. One could say that, through a vibrant process of mutual appropriation, the artists are weaving a shared visual language.
Artists featured in the exhibition:
Claudia Chaseling – Fiona Ackerman
Ernst Weil – Jonni Cheatwood
Gregor Hiltner – Taylor A. White
Christian Achenbach – Robert Szot
Adochi – Juan Logan
Natascha Mann – Howard Sherman
Virginia Glasmacher – Robert Rauschenberg
Galerie Kremers acknowledges the fact that this dialogue also takes place across generations by including the German postwar artist Ernst Weil and the American Robert Rauschenberg in the exhibition. Here, it becomes clear just how much of an inspiration and dialogue partner they are for their younger successors.
Here, one can discover both serendipitous connections and affinities by choice—which is hardly surprising in this melting pot of Western art. The somber, abstract elegies of Juan Logan blend with the powerful, dark compositions of the former Berliner Adochi. Likewise, Christian Achenbach’s abstract pictorial spaces and Fiona Ackerman’s carefully calculated gestures.
The discussion turns to the excessive, wild large-scale collages of the Texan Howard Sherman and the equally material-intensive paintings of the much older artist Natascha Mann. Berlin-based artist Claudia Chaseling, who reaches out into the space in her installations and “spatial paintings,” and Canadian artist Fiona Ackerman, who creates imaginary pictorial spaces in her figurative and abstract compositions, are both masters of mural painting in public spaces, much like Jonni Cheatwood and Gregor Hiltner.
A surprising connection emerges between the youngest of the American artists, Jonni Cheatwood, and the oldest of the German artists, Ernst Weil. Both artists’ works draw inspiration from the tension between the classical and the modern. A touch of nostalgia also wafts toward viewers in the well-composed collages of New Yorker Robert Szot and in Virginia Glasmacher’s informal abstract landscapes.
The self-referential abstractions of American artist Taylor A. White, which transcend conventional formats, are cut from the same cloth as the compositions of Berlin-based artist Gregor Hiltner, which are equally idiosyncratic in form and visual language. The great master in the background, Robert Rauschenberg—who himself would be inconceivable without the German artist Kurt Schwitters—is represented in the room by a large silkscreen print, revealing further connections.
WHEN?
Tuesday, 28. April 2026, 7 pm
WO?
Galerie Kremers
Schmiedehof 17 (Eingang Eberhard-Roters-Platz)
10965 Berlin-Kreuzberg
