50 years of the Nordenhake Gallery: What paint can do and what painting actually is

The Galerie Nordenhake celebrates its 50th anniversary with a major group exhibition in Berlin, marking both a milestone in its history and the beginning of a new chapter as it relocates from Kreuzberg to Charlottenburg. The gallery, founded in 1976 by Claes Nordenhake in Malmö, Sweden, has grown into a multi-city operation with locations in Stockholm, Berlin, and Mexico City. The current exhibition runs through August 29 and features works spanning five decades, including pieces that directly reference the gallery’s own history and evolution. The exhibition includes a range of artworks that explore the possibilities of color and the essence of painting itself. Among these is a video piece by Swedish artist Sofia Hultén titled “Fuck it up and start again,” which depicts her repeatedly dismantling and reconstructing a broken guitar. This work reflects a theme of trial and error, destruction and renewal, principles that have likely guided the gallery's own journey over the years. The piece is displayed alongside other works that highlight the experimental nature of the gallery’s program, which has long focused on pushing the boundaries of visual art. Nordenhake’s career began in Malmö before he moved to Stockholm in the mid-1980s. He expanded his presence to Berlin in 2000, establishing himself as a key figure in the city’s contemporary art scene. His influence extended further in 2005 when he became part of the founding circle of the Gallery Weekend, an annual event that has become a cornerstone of Berlin’s art calendar. In addition to Berlin and Stockholm, the gallery opened a location in Mexico City in 2017, reflecting its international reach and commitment to supporting local artists in each of its cities. The exhibition in Berlin includes works by several notable artists associated with the gallery. These include photographer Michael Schmidt, painter Sophie Reinhold, and Hultén herself, who was born in Stockholm in 1972. The show also features historical references to the gallery’s past, such as an installation by American artist Spencer Finch created in 2005. At that time, Finch transformed the gallery space in Berlin’s Zimmerstraße with a deep blue hue using both pigment and colored light. A box-format version of this installation is now included in the current exhibition, serving as a tribute to the gallery’s evolving identity. One of the standout works in the exhibition is “Gul” by American artist Joseph Marioni from 1981. This acrylic painting appears almost three-dimensional, with thick layers of paint creating a surface that seems to shimmer and drip like melting mango sorbet under sunlight. Another significant piece is “Alizarin Crimson” by American painter Marcia Hafif, a monochrome painting from 1983 that first appeared in the gallery in Malmö the same year. Hafif mixed her own pigments to achieve the distinctive blue-red tone, demonstrating the gallery’s early interest in exploring the materiality of paint. The move to Charlottenburg marks the end of nearly two decades in Kreuzberg, where the gallery occupied spaces in the Lindenstraße area. The building, originally constructed in 1912–13 as the “Kaufhaus Merkur,” later served as the headquarters of Lufthansa until 1938. It remained vacant for many years before Nordenhake, along with a Swedish collector, purchased it in the early 2000s and renovated it for gallery use. The gallery was the first to occupy the space in 2007, setting a precedent for future tenants. After several years, the property was sold again, but the legacy of the gallery’s presence there remains embedded in the fabric of Berlin’s cultural landscape. As the gallery prepares to open its new location in Charlottenburg, the exhibition serves as both a celebration of its half-century history and a reflection on the challenges and transformations that come with growth. The themes explored in the artwork, repetition, reconstruction, and the interplay of destruction and creation, are mirrored in the gallery’s own trajectory, suggesting that the next phase will continue to embrace experimentation and innovation.