2 MAY until 7 JUN 2025
Opening – 2 MAY 2025, 6-9 pm

For Gallery Weekend Berlin, ChertLüdde presents a solo exhibition titled Son of a Witch by Italian born, London-based, painter Patrizio di Massimo (1983, Jesi, Italy). Known for his exploration of personal and art historical narratives, this show blends di Massimo’s sense of humor, introspection, and extravagant aesthetics to create compelling and theatrical compositions.

Unlike his previous exhibition at ChertLüdde, Out Like a Light (9 June – 26 August 2023), which depicted close family and friends in serene sleeping postures, his upcoming show features a series of oil paintings dominated by bold colors. Here, the artist takes on a dual role, serving as both the subject and the storyteller of his own portraiture. Di Massimo’s highly stylized approach, infused with high and low influences, heightens the theatricality of the unconventional settings he inhabits.

One of the central paintings features a wild cast of surrealist characters, imbuing the composition with an unexpected sense of magic that transforms the otherwise familiar scene. The heraldic self-portrait Automatic Writing (Self-Portrait with Red, Yellow, and Blue Creatures) depicts the artist writing in his notebook while being surrounded by fantastical creatures. These figures appear to come to life around him, reflecting his practice of automatic writing—a technique used to summon creative ideas. On the desk before him, his young daughter sleeps, creating a contrast between reality and imagination. The result is a work that blurs the boundaries between the tangible and the surreal, showcasing the artist’s ability to merge lived experience with the world of the unconscious.

Di Massimo critiques the very fantasy of how we present ourselves to the world, questioning the masks we wear and the identities we construct. Often framed by painting grand curtains, classical pillars, or evocative backdrops reminiscent of traditional portraiture—di Massimo playfully engages with themes of identity, self-mythology, and artistic legacy. The result is a compelling reflection on the performative nature of portraiture and the artist’s role within both contemporary and historical discourse.

His work has been exhibited in venues such as: Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art, Turin; ParaSite, Hong Kong; Dhaka Art Summit, Dhaka; Museion, Bolzano; Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan; Triennale di Milano, Milan; Castello di Rivoli, Rivoli; Fiorucci Art Trust, London; M HKA, Antwerp; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Museo do Arte do Rio, Rio de Janeiro; Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Torino; Villa Medici, Rome; EVA International, Ireland’s Biennial of Contemporary Art, Limerick; Gaswork, London; Kunsthalle Lissabon, Lisbon.

In 2012 he was selected as a finalist in the Premio Italia 2012, held at MAXXI, Rome. In 2009 he had his first solo presentation within the program Zilkha Auditorium at Whitechapel Gallery, London. He attended prestigious residences at De Ateliers, Amsterdam; Stipendium Kunstzeitraum, Munich; and Sommerakademie, Centre Paul Klee, Bern. 

2 MAY until 26 JUL 2025
Opening – 2 MAY 2025, 6-9 pm

As part of Gallery Weekend Berlin, ChertLüdde presents September and the Lions, a solo exhibition by Álvaro Urbano. The exhibition presents a botanical path and works as a disjointed landscape, showing different glimpses of a late-summer evening in Tiergarten–Berlin’s largest public park. The gallery space frames a permanent, artificial dusk: a yellow hue settles across the room, rain drops cling to the windows. Suddenly the interior is displaced outward, and the exterior takes refuge within. Álvaro Urbano (b. 1983, Madrid) is a Spanish contemporary artist based in Berlin, recognized for his immersive installations and sculptures that blur the lines between architecture, fiction, and memory. After studying architecture in Madrid, he developed an artistic practice that often engages with abandoned spaces, mythologies, and historical events, transforming them into living environments where past and present intertwine.

His recent solo exhibition TABLEAU VIVANT, on view at SculptureCenter in New York (September 19, 2024 – March 24, 2025), explored the legacy of queer artist Scott Burton’s (1939–1989) public installation in the lobby of the Equitable Center building in midtown Manhattan. Similarly, Urbano’s collaboration with artist Petrit Halilaj (b. 1986, Kostrc), Lunar Ensemble for Uprising Seas at the Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA) (October 11, 2024 – January 12, 2025), examines personal and collective memory in times of ecological disaster. In this project, hybrid creatures emerge as echoes of lost worlds and speculative futures. Through his work, Urbano crafts poetic encounters with history, inviting viewers to uncover and reimagine forgotten narratives.

At ChertLüdde, Urbano’s installation features meticulously crafted botanical replicas, referencing plants from a specific area of Tiergarten near the Löwenbrücke (Lions Bridge). This secluded zone remains an active cruising site—a public space for casual sexual encounters, primarily among men who have sex with men—where overgrown foliage creates a natural refuge for queer intimacy. The dense canopy of pagoda dogwoods, elderberry bushes, and sweetgum fosters an atmosphere of secrecy and protection, retelling the hidden narratives embedded within the park’s landscape. Through this layered interplay of history, nature, and desire, Urbano explores the concept of heterotopia—a space where multiple meanings, identities, and temporalities coexist.

In September and the Lions, Urbano articulates the landscape into scenes, presenting different specimens out of their real context, but allows the public to relate to them in their real scale. The plants, in the midst of their autumnal transition, serve both as a captivating backdrop and dynamic performers. They navigate the space and simultaneously provide different ways to wander through the exhibition, blurring the lines between history and fiction and sketching a certain ecology of desire.