Few artists achieve work of such consistent tension. It is as if a flaming torch were passed on from series to series. Or as if skin were stretched particularly tightly over the bones of each canvas. It is a tension which has developed exclusively from the painterly postulates which Monika Baer has increasingly unfolded over the past thirty years. Without compromise Baer has thus created a body of work which flows free from all currents. Baer’s visual language appears timeless while also being strongly connected to the present. Sauntering, dialectic movements create a charged vibration and also characterise the internal correlations of the paintings.
Defection presents Baer’s most recent works. They are shown in proximity to the previously developed motivic group of coats which have been left behind on ledges or in crevices. Both complexes negotiate shallow space, with the underlying dimension remaining closed and enigmatic. The eye scanning its obsessive detail can pick up a trail, but cannot pursue it to the end.
Image credit: Monika Baer, Schweine Steine Scherben (smoking), 2025, detail. Courtesy of the artist and Trautwein Herleth, Berlin, Greene Naftali, New York. Photo: Júlia Standovár
The exhibition is supported by
Eine Stadt als Atelier
22.5. – 19.7.2026
Eine Stadt als Atelier 22 May to 19 July 2026 Opening: Thursday, 21 May 2026
Participating artists, including: Michael Van den Abeele; Chantal Akerman; Danai Anesiadou; Ethan Assouline; Sammy Baloji; Marianne Berenhaut; Kasper Bosmans; Jef Cornelis; Jos de Gruyter & Harald Thys; Laurent Dupont; Jana Euler; Arnaud Eubelen; Béla Feldberg; Mona Filleul; Gust Duchateau; Felix Kindermann; Aglaia Konrad; Céline Mathieu; Hana Miletic; Shaun Motsi; Willem Oorebeek; Jurgen Ots; Marina Pinsky; Sophie Podolski; Emile Rubino; Chéri Samba; Michaela Schweighofer; Beat Streuli; Walter Swennen; Angharad Williams.
The exhibition Eine Stadt als Atelier focuses on Brussels as a multifaceted urban organism. The city combines cosmopolitan diversity, overlapping political influences, and social tensions—a chaotic but inspiring environment for artistic creation. Brussels’ architecture, colonial history, and immigration shape working methods that reflect nonconformity, resistance, and urban reality. The exhibition examines artistic perspectives on urban structures, social textures, and historical traces. With stops in Cologne and Brussels, the project links historical and geographical resonances, highlights cultural interconnections between cities, and expands the interpretation of urban topographies through artistic practices. Brussels thus becomes a model space for reflecting on how cities as living organisms can be continually reinterpreted through art.
Curated by Fabian Flückiger, Curator Brussels and Valérie Knoll, Director Kölnischer Kunstverein.
We are delighted that Eine Stadt als Atelier has been nominated for the *WESTSTERN Prize 2026 in the category Exhibition.
Image: Jana Euler, by its cover, 3, 2017. Courtesy the artist. Photo: Kristien Daem
