ART DÜSSELDORF 2026 – FRAGILE REALITIES

Areal Böhler • Düsseldorf / Germany • 2026

For her presentation with Galerie Kaufmann at Art Düsseldorf 2026, Katherina Heil presents a selection of new works in which drawing, 3D-printmaking, and spatial installation enter into dialogue. Situated between geological permanence and mediated surfaces, the works form constellations that bring together weight and lightness, duration and transience, materiality and perception.

There are moments when reality shifts, at first barely perceptibly. Something falls out of balance, and certainties long taken for granted begin to crumble. In this context, fragility does not describe an exceptional state, but rather a fundamental experience of the present.

Fragile Realities brings together artistic practices that address precisely this shift in reality. The works do not attempt to explain crises or offer clear-cut answers. Instead, many engage with fragility through the body, through materials, or through forms of memory. Stability rarely appears as a given, but rather as something that must be constantly reestablished.

The selection of participating galleries follows a conscious curatorial decision: only spaces founded by women gallery owners were invited. This framework functions less as a programmatic theme for the special section than as a structural perspective. It shifts the focus toward curatorial practice, and toward networks and forms of visibility within the art system.

Written by curator of the FRAGILE REALITIES section Pola van den Hövel.