Zurich Art Weekend: a high-quality programme from museums, galleries and non-profit venues
With 65 exhibitions and 150 events taking place at around 70 venues, the city attracts a wide audience of visitors and collectors
Key points
At the weekend when Switzerland chose pluralism and voted against the proposal by the right-wing nationalist Swiss People’s Party (SVP) to cap the resident population at ten million, Zurich showcased the vibrancy and quality of its arts and cultural scene. From 12 to 14 June, the ninth edition of the Zurich Art Weekend took place, an event bringing together more than 65 exhibitions and 150 events across some 70 venues in the city, including not only galleries but also institutions and non-profit spaces.
Zurich, in fact, is a city that boasts major museums such as the Kunsthaus, which is currently hosting a major retrospective exhibition dedicated to the Venezuelan-born sculptor Marisol (1930–2016), but also a vast number of alternative spaces for emerging art, and a thriving art market, with galleries and auction houses sustained by the city’s wealth and a strong collecting culture.
Rosa Barba’s exhibition
Every year, the Art Weekend attracts 45,000 visitors, with a significant international presence thanks to the strategic decision to hold the event just before Art Basel. The exhibitions in the city are predominantly solo shows, offering visitors the chance to explore the work of both emerging and established artists. Among the most talked-about is the Italian artist based in Germany, Rosa Barba, who has a solo exhibition at the Haus Konstruktiv, within the former industrial area of the Löwenbräukunst Areal, having won the 19th Zurich Art Prize 2026, awarded by the museum in cooperation with Zurich Insurance Company Ltd. The artist, who is represented by the Italian gallery Vistamare and by Esther Schipper in Berlin (prices undisclosed), was also honoured with the launch of a new publication by Phaidon and an event organised by the collectors Bilge and Haro Cumbusyan, who specialise in video art and media art, at their modernist villa.
Exhibitions at the Löwenbräukunst Areal
At Peter Fischli’s home, meanwhile, there is a pop-up space run by the American gallery Reena Spaulings, which is not taking part in Art Basel this year and is in Zurich until 21 June, showcasing conceptual works by artists such as Klara Liden, Nora Schultz and Henrik Olesen (prices ranging from $6,500 to $75,000). Of the latter in particular – a Danish artist born in 1967, represented in Italia by Noero – there is a crocodile sculpture that alludes to his solo exhibition at the Kunsthalle Zürich, also in the Löwenbräukunst Areal (75,000 dollars), his first in the Swiss city for two decades. The nearby Migros Museum, meanwhile, is exhibiting the work of the Franco-Algerian photographer Mohamed Bourouissa, born in 1978, who is already highly regarded in France and beyond (he is represented by Mennour and Blum & Poe). Next door, the Swiss Institute is celebrating its 40th anniversary by restaging the historic ‘Regift’ exhibition, featuring 50 artists reflecting on the themes of exchange and value in contemporary art. To mark the occasion, a number of works have been donated by the artists to the institute and are being sold through Hauser & Wirth to raise funds for the institution’s future.
This gallery is currently exhibiting the African-American painter Henry Taylor (currently also on display at the Musée Picasso), the post-internet artist Avery Singer, whilst its venue on the elegant Bahnhofstrasse is celebrating the Polish sculptor Alina Szapocznikow on the occasion of the centenary of her birth (1926–1973).
