Galerie Thomas Schulte

Opening Tuesday 24 March, 5–7pm Ikon presents UPRIGHT, a major exhibition of rarely seen works by acclaimed contemporary artist Angela de la Cruz, alongside a new commission developed in collaboration with Birmingham Royal Ballet. The title of the exhibition, implies standing straight – both alone and with support – to remain vertical. Guest curated by Carolina Grau, the exhibition brings together key sculptures, installations and paintings that explore de la Cruz’s deep concern with the human body, vulnerability and the physical realities of everyday survival. For more than three decades, Angela de la Cruz has pushed the boundaries of painting and sculpture. Her works interrogate what happens when familiar structures — physical, emotional or architectural — collapse, strain or resist pressure. Born in La Coruña, Spain, and based in London, Angela de la Cruz (b. 1965) has been a leading figure in contemporary sculpture and expanded painting for more than thirty years. She was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2010, and this exhibition marks her first solo exhibition in the UK outside London.

Robert Mapplethorpe remains one of the most influential, refined and controversial photographers of the 20th century. With "Robert Mapplethorpe: Le Forme del Desiderio", Palazzo Reale presents an extensive and unprecedented selection of his iconic and unconventional works, revealing the artist’s relentless pursuit of beauty, desire and formal perfection.⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ Curated by Denis Curti, the exhibition is the second chapter of a major trilogy that began in Venice with "Robert Mapplethorpe: Le Forme Del Classico" at Le Stanze della Fotografia and will conclude in Rome at Museo dell’Ara Pacis with "Robert Mapplethorpe: Le Forme della Bellezza"⁣. In Milan, the focus lies on Mapplethorpe’s sensual nudes, sculptural bodies and classical tension — a visual dialogue between contemporary photography and ancient Greek ideals.⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ Part of the cultural program of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, the exhibition invites visitors to reflect on identity, desire, gender and the enduring power of aesthetic form. Through 257 works, the evolution of Mapplethorpe’s visual language unfolds with striking clarity and emotional intensity. Work: Robert Mapplethorpe⁣⁣ Thomas⁣, 1987⁣⁣ © Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, used by permission

Galerie Thomas Schulte presents 'ABOVE AND BELOW THE THREE WORLDS', an extensive solo exhibition of works on paper, rubbings, and objects by Matt Mullican. Familiar systems of organizing and representing information and knowledge, including charts, models, and bulletin boards, coalesce with idiosyncratic ones that are at the core of Mullican’s practice. His use of primary colors and basic forms, particularly the circle or sphere, comes to the fore as initial legibility gives way to underlying complexity. Mullican has been developing his cosmology and system of signs and symbols since the ‘70s. Here, early works on paper from that period alongside recent rubbings highlight continuities and the elaboration of a reality structured across multiple levels – condensed and expansive, highly personal yet broadly encompassing.

An exhibition featuring the works of Marieta Chirulescu and Fred Sandback. The show explores the interplay between light, space, and materiality through a series of non-referential works that carry an openness and tangible extension of their respective media.

Jaar's approach and work have been highly acclaimed, earning him numerous significant awards. In 2018, he became the 11th recipient of the Hiroshima Art Prize, which recognises the achievements of artists who have contributed to the peace of humanity through art. A commemorative exhibition was held at the Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art in 2023. The exhibition at Tokyo Opera Art City Gallery, named You and Me and the Others, features large-scale work commissioned for the Hiroshima exhibition, representative works from Jaar's early career in the 1970s, and a new work created specifically for this occasion. Why does the artist continue creating works addressing global issues? What do we feel and think when we encounter these works? Looking back on his life to date, Alfredo Jaar offers each of us an opportunity to consider such questions, thinking the world from our own perspectives, and acknowledging the power of art. On the occasion of the exhibition, the artist will give a special lecture at Lecture Room 1, Central Building, Faculty of Fine Arts, Ueno Campus, Tokyo University of the Arts. The lecture will be free of charge (50 seats for general public, first-come, first-served).

It would seem that Maria Loboda and Władysław Hasior are separated by everything, and yet they share a desire to tell stories—an impulse that becomes central to the exhibition Style. As Loboda explains, “I try to build each exhibition around a small story – a haiku – thanks to which all the works ‘belong together’, they all interact with each other.” In Style, she turns her attention to the space in which the artist from Zakopane worked. The high, south-facing, glass-fronted rooms, once intended for rest and the treatment of lung diseases, proved to be an ideal setting for creative experimentation. For Loboda, they became an opportunity to imagine and narrate her dream studio. Within her drawings, the area currently used for temporary exhibitions is arranged in ways that evoke different eras and aesthetic languages, allowing her to move fluidly through familiar cultural codes. Through this, she reflects on what a studio means to its creator—also in a metaphysical sense. Her transparent model, A studio undergoing self-analysis, invites other artists to envision their own projects and simultaneously echoes one of Hasior’s most daring ideas: the glass monument. Loboda emphasizes that for her—a nomadic artist—“the idea of the studio has always been something very changeable, fragile and intimate.” In Style, the studio becomes not only a place that houses works, but a vessel for emotions, ideas, and the shifting conditions of artistic life.

Layer by layer, item by item, document by document, Atkinson’s minimalist presentation reveals itself as a thick tangle of cross-references curated to appear serendipitous, only for the scale and depth of his artistic research to emerge in instalments. Atkinson’s archival work can be best described as a non-linear archival excavation that recontextualizes the post-war story of Germany, highlighting the dearth of archival traces in institutional repositories.

A group exhibition featuring works by various artists exploring the themes of structure, systems, and perception. The show includes sculptures, drawings, and paintings that engage with ideas of seriality, variation, and the essence of their respective mediums.

A group exhibition featuring works by eight artists exploring themes of structure, systems, and perception. The show includes sculptures, installations, paintings, and drawings that engage with the gallery space in various ways.