Opening

The Kestner Gesellschaft is pleased to open the first institutional solo exhibition in Germany in over a decade by the internationally renowned painter Richard Hawkins on Thursday, April 23, 2026, at 7 pm. Titled Potentialities, the exhibition will occupy the entire gallery space of the Kestner Gesellschaft.

Families with children aged 3 and up are warmly invited to a kids' vernissage at 3 pm, making them the first guests to experience the exhibition that day.

Welcome remarks will be given by Heidelinde Gerhold, Chair of the Board of the Kestner Gesellschaft, Corinna Fischer, Head of the Department of Culture at the Lower Saxony Ministry of Science and Culture, and Eva Birkenstock, Director of the Kestner Gesellschaft and curator of the exhibition. At 8.30 pm, art educator Gabriele Sand will lead a public tour of the exhibition.

Potentialities offers a comprehensive overview of Richard Hawkins’ artistic practice and presents new works from the past decade in Germany for the first time. The exhibition brings together more than 100 paintings, collages, sculptures, and videos from nine bodies of work created over the past three decades. Since the 1990s, Hawkins has developed a distinctive artistic practice in which he expands painting through references to art history, literature, and the performing arts, as well as to pop culture, celebrity, and digital image worlds. The exhibition traces Hawkins’ personal and often obsessive exploration of images, bringing together different phases of his work and media for the first time in a dense panorama: from meticulously annotated collages and ceramic reliefs to paintings and AI-generated videos, which can be described as contemporary “queer exorcisms.”

The newly established archive presentation Passage IV. Missing Time accompanies the exhibition and revisits the 1995 presentation Mike Kelley – Missing Time – Works on Paper 1974–1976/94. In the Passage space, the exhibition program intersects with various educational formats such as kestnerkids and the open workshop.

Throughout the opening evening, DJ Heatsick will perform a new DJ set, while the Broncos Bar will provide refreshments and tapas for all guests.

We look forward to welcoming you!