Featured Events in Zurich in April, 2025 (May Updated)

The Kunsthaus Zürich presents a diverse exhibition programme that unites opposites and opens up innovative ways of viewing art. The focus is on surprising moments that invite visitors to rethink boundaries and open up new worlds of perception. This year's outstanding artists include Roman Signer, known for his spectacular installations, Monster Chetwynd, whose provocative works challenge traditional art forms, and Refik Anadol, a pioneer of AI-supported art. These and other globally unique projects offer fresh perspectives and unforgettable experiences that go beyond traditional exhibition formats. From the iconic Dada movement to cutting-edge digital art, from intimate to large-scale works, the coming year promises an inspiring journey through time, space and media at Kunsthaus Zürich.

James Franco is certainly the only Hollywood star to read Marcel Proust on Spiderman films sets. Twice Golden Globe-awarded (2002 for James Dean role; 2018 for The Disaster Artist), Oscar-nominated, the 46 year old actor played in some hundred films and series since he was 16. Actor-director-producer, James Franco has been parallelly acting in life as an academic with a PhD from Yale, a writer publishing poetry, a model for Gucci, and mostly as a visual artist since his teenage years developing a considerable visual work mixing painting, video art and performance. After shows with MOCA Los Angeles (Rebel, 2012, along with artists friends Paul McCarthy, Douglas Gordon, Ed Ruscha…) and in galleries including Pace and Gagosian, Franco presents his new exhibition at Galerie Gmurzynska, Zurich, titled Hollywood is Hell. A powerful series of rough and complex collages composed of various layers of images and signs, symbols and text. 28 shocking canvases and objets d’art appearing as destroyed posters on the street walls of some dirty district will be on display: those collages represent for James Franco “a portrait of Los Angeles during Covid, the artist explains. The streets were empty, the posters damaged on the walls… It was a sort of almost post-apocalyptic atmosphere. I lived at that time near the Hollywood cemetery, where so many stars are buried, and I was walking there. Dreamland had became for me a waste land. And this shit is actually how the dream factory looks like”. One of those collages on canvas is purposely titled: “Hollywood is Hell”. The whole series of works, exhibited for the first time, constitutes a kind of deconstruction of a certain glamorous mythology of Hollywood. Masculinity is devastated – from Bruce Willis’ figure to Batman icon, through Jordan and Travolta – as one of the pillars of a decadent mass entertainment culture. It may come as no surprise that James Franco loves William Burroughs’ literature and his deconstructed writing. Those collages are true deconstructed works. James Franco likes more than everything to walk on the opposite side of the shinning Dream City fantasy. In the highly-standardized Hollywood system, art eventually became a kind of refuge for the actor, the last place of freedom.

This exhibition will focus on the textile works of American artist Sheila Hicks, Swiss artist Elsi Giauque and others, ranging from plain and simple fabrics to fancy and colorful tassels, from two-dimensional geometric pattern weaving to free-form products in three-dimensional space, striving to present the creativity of the artists and the unique appeal they give to their works.

Lullin + Ferrari present new works by Franziska Furter (*1972 in Zurich, lives and works in Basel) in her seventh solo exhibition at the gallery.

The exhibition at the National Museum Zurich shines a spotlight on a culture still embraced enthusiastically by millions of people around the world today. Video and audio installations in a setting designed to look like a record shop take visitors on a journey through the evolution of electronic sound and let them explore the social, political, economic and aesthetic dimensions of techno culture in Switzerland.

The exhibition at the National Museum Zurich shines a spotlight on a culture still embraced enthusiastically by millions of people around the world today. Video and audio installations in a setting designed to look like a record shop take visitors on a journey through the evolution of electronic sound and let them explore the social, political, economic and aesthetic dimensions of techno culture in Switzerland.

The Kunsthaus Zürich shows the fascinating world of Roman Signer. The large exhibition gallery will be transformed into an open artistic landscape where playful energy and a deep sense of wonder about nature come together.

The Kunsthaus Zürich shows the fascinating world of Roman Signer. The large exhibition gallery will be transformed into an open artistic landscape where playful energy and a deep sense of wonder about nature come together.

The Kunsthaus Zürich shows the fascinating world of Roman Signer. The large exhibition gallery will be transformed into an open artistic landscape where playful energy and a deep sense of wonder about nature come together.

Galerie Peter Kilchmann presents “Red Romance”, the first solo exhibition of South Korean artist Sea Hyun Lee. Known for his spectacular “Red Sansu” landscapes, Lee’s work employs vibrant red tones to evoke emotions such as grief, pain, fear, and beauty, while simultaneously challenging the viewer to look beyond the surface of idyllic landscapes and explore the complexities beneath.

James Franco is certainly the only Hollywood star to read Marcel Proust on Spiderman films sets. Twice Golden Globe-awarded (2002 for James Dean role; 2018 for The Disaster Artist), Oscar-nominated, the 46 year old actor played in some hundred films and series since he was 16. Actor-director-producer, James Franco has been parallelly acting in life as an academic with a PhD from Yale, a writer publishing poetry, a model for Gucci, and mostly as a visual artist since his teenage years developing a considerable visual work mixing painting, video art and performance. After shows with MOCA Los Angeles (Rebel, 2012, along with artists friends Paul McCarthy, Douglas Gordon, Ed Ruscha…) and in galleries including Pace and Gagosian, Franco presents his new exhibition at Galerie Gmurzynska, Zurich, titled Hollywood is Hell. A powerful series of rough and complex collages composed of various layers of images and signs, symbols and text. 28 shocking canvases and objets d’art appearing as destroyed posters on the street walls of some dirty district will be on display: those collages represent for James Franco “a portrait of Los Angeles during Covid, the artist explains. The streets were empty, the posters damaged on the walls… It was a sort of almost post-apocalyptic atmosphere. I lived at that time near the Hollywood cemetery, where so many stars are buried, and I was walking there. Dreamland had became for me a waste land. And this shit is actually how the dream factory looks like”. One of those collages on canvas is purposely titled: “Hollywood is Hell”. The whole series of works, exhibited for the first time, constitutes a kind of deconstruction of a certain glamorous mythology of Hollywood. Masculinity is devastated – from Bruce Willis’ figure to Batman icon, through Jordan and Travolta – as one of the pillars of a decadent mass entertainment culture. It may come as no surprise that James Franco loves William Burroughs’ literature and his deconstructed writing. Those collages are true deconstructed works. James Franco likes more than everything to walk on the opposite side of the shinning Dream City fantasy. In the highly-standardized Hollywood system, art eventually became a kind of refuge for the actor, the last place of freedom.

James Franco is certainly the only Hollywood star to read Marcel Proust on Spiderman films sets. Twice Golden Globe-awarded (2002 for James Dean role; 2018 for The Disaster Artist), Oscar-nominated, the 46 year old actor played in some hundred films and series since he was 16. Actor-director-producer, James Franco has been parallelly acting in life as an academic with a PhD from Yale, a writer publishing poetry, a model for Gucci, and mostly as a visual artist since his teenage years developing a considerable visual work mixing painting, video art and performance. After shows with MOCA Los Angeles (Rebel, 2012, along with artists friends Paul McCarthy, Douglas Gordon, Ed Ruscha…) and in galleries including Pace and Gagosian, Franco presents his new exhibition at Galerie Gmurzynska, Zurich, titled Hollywood is Hell. A powerful series of rough and complex collages composed of various layers of images and signs, symbols and text. 28 shocking canvases and objets d’art appearing as destroyed posters on the street walls of some dirty district will be on display: those collages represent for James Franco “a portrait of Los Angeles during Covid, the artist explains. The streets were empty, the posters damaged on the walls… It was a sort of almost post-apocalyptic atmosphere. I lived at that time near the Hollywood cemetery, where so many stars are buried, and I was walking there. Dreamland had became for me a waste land. And this shit is actually how the dream factory looks like”. One of those collages on canvas is purposely titled: “Hollywood is Hell”. The whole series of works, exhibited for the first time, constitutes a kind of deconstruction of a certain glamorous mythology of Hollywood. Masculinity is devastated – from Bruce Willis’ figure to Batman icon, through Jordan and Travolta – as one of the pillars of a decadent mass entertainment culture. It may come as no surprise that James Franco loves William Burroughs’ literature and his deconstructed writing. Those collages are true deconstructed works. James Franco likes more than everything to walk on the opposite side of the shinning Dream City fantasy. In the highly-standardized Hollywood system, art eventually became a kind of refuge for the actor, the last place of freedom.

The Kunsthaus Zürich presents a diverse exhibition programme that unites opposites and opens up innovative ways of viewing art. The focus is on surprising moments that invite visitors to rethink boundaries and open up new worlds of perception. This year's outstanding artists include Roman Signer, known for his spectacular installations, Monster Chetwynd, whose provocative works challenge traditional art forms, and Refik Anadol, a pioneer of AI-supported art. These and other globally unique projects offer fresh perspectives and unforgettable experiences that go beyond traditional exhibition formats. From the iconic Dada movement to cutting-edge digital art, from intimate to large-scale works, the coming year promises an inspiring journey through time, space and media at Kunsthaus Zürich.

For her second exhibition with Hauser & Wirth and her first solo show in Switzerland, Uman presents all new paintings and works on paper at the gallery’s Zurich location on Limmatstrasse in partnership with Nicola Vassell Gallery, New York NY. Working in Upstate New York, Uman’s new paintings reflect her reverence for the natural world. Fluidly navigating in-between realms to explore both the physical and spiritual, the artist intertwines abstraction, figuration and meditative patterning. Expanding on this unique visual language, Uman’s new body of work also explores ideas of color field painting. With some works suspended from the ceiling and a site-specific wall mural that transforms part of the gallery space, Uman invites the viewer to be immersed in her lavishly detailed and opulently colored worlds, replete with gesture, geometry and evocations of the sublime.

This January, the artist Rachel Khedoori presents an installation of new work in the second-floor gallery of Hauser & Wirth Zurich, Limmatstrasse. Over the course of a career spanning 30 years, Khedoori has worked in various mediums—film, sculpture and installation to reinterpret space and challenge perception through the discrete displacement of her mediums, materials and forms.

For her second exhibition with Hauser & Wirth and her first solo show in Switzerland, Uman presents all new paintings and works on paper at the gallery’s Zurich location on Limmatstrasse in partnership with Nicola Vassell Gallery, New York NY. Working in Upstate New York, Uman’s new paintings reflect her reverence for the natural world. Fluidly navigating in-between realms to explore both the physical and spiritual, the artist intertwines abstraction, figuration and meditative patterning. Expanding on this unique visual language, Uman’s new body of work also explores ideas of color field painting. With some works suspended from the ceiling and a site-specific wall mural that transforms part of the gallery space, Uman invites the viewer to be immersed in her lavishly detailed and opulently colored worlds, replete with gesture, geometry and evocations of the sublime.

This January, the artist Rachel Khedoori presents an installation of new work in the second-floor gallery of Hauser & Wirth Zurich, Limmatstrasse. Over the course of a career spanning 30 years, Khedoori has worked in various mediums—film, sculpture and installation to reinterpret space and challenge perception through the discrete displacement of her mediums, materials and forms.

For her second exhibition with Hauser & Wirth and her first solo show in Switzerland, Uman presents all new paintings and works on paper at the gallery’s Zurich location on Limmatstrasse in partnership with Nicola Vassell Gallery, New York NY. Working in Upstate New York, Uman’s new paintings reflect her reverence for the natural world. Fluidly navigating in-between realms to explore both the physical and spiritual, the artist intertwines abstraction, figuration and meditative patterning. Expanding on this unique visual language, Uman’s new body of work also explores ideas of color field painting. With some works suspended from the ceiling and a site-specific wall mural that transforms part of the gallery space, Uman invites the viewer to be immersed in her lavishly detailed and opulently colored worlds, replete with gesture, geometry and evocations of the sublime.

This January, the artist Rachel Khedoori presents an installation of new work in the second-floor gallery of Hauser & Wirth Zurich, Limmatstrasse. Over the course of a career spanning 30 years, Khedoori has worked in various mediums—film, sculpture and installation to reinterpret space and challenge perception through the discrete displacement of her mediums, materials and forms.

This exhibition will focus on the textile works of American artist Sheila Hicks, Swiss artist Elsi Giauque and others, ranging from plain and simple fabrics to fancy and colorful tassels, from two-dimensional geometric pattern weaving to free-form products in three-dimensional space, striving to present the creativity of the artists and the unique appeal they give to their works.

This exhibition will focus on the textile works of American artist Sheila Hicks, Swiss artist Elsi Giauque and others, ranging from plain and simple fabrics to fancy and colorful tassels, from two-dimensional geometric pattern weaving to free-form products in three-dimensional space, striving to present the creativity of the artists and the unique appeal they give to their works.

Bernheim Gallery is pleased to present Mortal Thoughts, a group show that brings together the practices of four artists: Nutsa Gogaladze, Ant Łakomsk, Travis MacDonald, and Rico Weber. The exhibition explores the lingering traces of absence and presence that remain as echoes of past experiences or as conjured fragments from the unknown. Working at the intersection of abstraction and figuration, the exhibition continuously hints at a fragment of memory that remains hidden, never fully unveiled. Through abstraction, obscured figures, and the interplay of light and shadow, this theme unfolds literally in the paintings of Łakomsk and MacDonald, where hazy figures emerge through painterly brushstrokes, as well as more conceptually through the works of Gogaladze and Weber, which explore how memory materialises within spatial constructs.

Bernheim Gallery is pleased to present Mortal Thoughts, a group show that brings together the practices of four artists: Nutsa Gogaladze, Ant Łakomsk, Travis MacDonald, and Rico Weber. The exhibition explores the lingering traces of absence and presence that remain as echoes of past experiences or as conjured fragments from the unknown. Working at the intersection of abstraction and figuration, the exhibition continuously hints at a fragment of memory that remains hidden, never fully unveiled. Through abstraction, obscured figures, and the interplay of light and shadow, this theme unfolds literally in the paintings of Łakomsk and MacDonald, where hazy figures emerge through painterly brushstrokes, as well as more conceptually through the works of Gogaladze and Weber, which explore how memory materialises within spatial constructs.

Bernheim Gallery is pleased to present Mortal Thoughts, a group show that brings together the practices of four artists: Nutsa Gogaladze, Ant Łakomsk, Travis MacDonald, and Rico Weber. The exhibition explores the lingering traces of absence and presence that remain as echoes of past experiences or as conjured fragments from the unknown. Working at the intersection of abstraction and figuration, the exhibition continuously hints at a fragment of memory that remains hidden, never fully unveiled. Through abstraction, obscured figures, and the interplay of light and shadow, this theme unfolds literally in the paintings of Łakomsk and MacDonald, where hazy figures emerge through painterly brushstrokes, as well as more conceptually through the works of Gogaladze and Weber, which explore how memory materialises within spatial constructs.

Bernheim Gallery is pleased to present Mortal Thoughts, a group show that brings together the practices of four artists: Nutsa Gogaladze, Ant Łakomsk, Travis MacDonald, and Rico Weber. The exhibition explores the lingering traces of absence and presence that remain as echoes of past experiences or as conjured fragments from the unknown. Working at the intersection of abstraction and figuration, the exhibition continuously hints at a fragment of memory that remains hidden, never fully unveiled. Through abstraction, obscured figures, and the interplay of light and shadow, this theme unfolds literally in the paintings of Łakomsk and MacDonald, where hazy figures emerge through painterly brushstrokes, as well as more conceptually through the works of Gogaladze and Weber, which explore how memory materialises within spatial constructs.

Lullin + Ferrari present new works by Franziska Furter (*1972 in Zurich, lives and works in Basel) in her seventh solo exhibition at the gallery.

Lullin + Ferrari present new works by Franziska Furter (*1972 in Zurich, lives and works in Basel) in her seventh solo exhibition at the gallery.

The exhibition at the National Museum Zurich shines a spotlight on a culture still embraced enthusiastically by millions of people around the world today. Video and audio installations in a setting designed to look like a record shop take visitors on a journey through the evolution of electronic sound and let them explore the social, political, economic and aesthetic dimensions of techno culture in Switzerland.

Galerie Eva Presenhuber presents the group show Wall Works & Sculptures, showcasing works by Walead Beshty, Angela Bulloch, Sylvie Fleury, Liam Gillick, Douglas Gordon, John Giorno, Adam Pendleton, Gerwald Rockenschaub, Ugo Rondinone, and Steven Shearer.

The photographs in this exhibition were sourced from the artist’s extensive collection of found online images depicting individuals asleep. These photographs date back to the early days of the internet when platforms like Picasa, Blogger, and Photobucket played a key role in the hosting and sharing of images. None of these photographs can be found online today, nor can they be reverse image searched. While they may still exist on personal servers or digital cameras, their public-facing presence has, in most cases, vanished from the world.