Agnes Scherer

Agnes Scherer (born in 1985, Germany) lives and works in Salzburg and Berlin. She studied painting at the Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf with Peter Doig and Enrico David.

Scherer’s practice involves the fusion of painting, collage and handcrafted artefacts to form large-scale installations reminiscent of theatrical stages. Scherer’s immersive narratives demand active engagement from the viewer as she interrogates power dynamics and their underlying psychologies by employing anachronisms and universally recognised symbols. Informed by analyses of artistic, anthropological and cultural histories, her work often illustrates the uncanny ways in which historical systems, economies and societal roles are reflected in the present. Scherer’s wild assemblages take form as volatile puppet shows with recurring motifs that appear and act as inscrutable controllers of fate. Scherer’s extravagant exhibitions, which often incorporate performative elements, willingly escape clear definition or judgement suggesting that she, like the viewer, may be complicit.

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Selected solo shows include Meyer Kainer, Vienna (2024); Sadie Coles HQ, London (2024); ChertLüdde, Berlin (2024); Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen (2023); Heidelberger Kunstverein (2023); PAGE (NYC) at Bel Ami, Los Angeles (2023); Sans titre, Paris (2022 & 2020); PAGE (NYC), New York (2022); Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Dusseldorf (2021); Philipp Haverkampf, Berlin (2019).

Agnes Scherer’s first operetta “Cupid and the Animals”, was awarded the Nigel Greenwood Art Prize in 2015 and performed in, among other places, the Museum Ludwig in Cologne (2017) and TRAMPS in New York (2018). In 2019, her second elaborate work within this format, “The Teacher”, was presented by Kinderhook & Caracas in Berlin, at Cabaret Voltaire, Zurich (2020) and in Italy for the festival ART CITY Bologna (2023). Also in 2020, Scherer presented the first part of her third operetta project “The Salty Testament” at 1646 in The Hague. The artist’s narrative installation “The Very Hungry” at the Berlin project space Horse & Pony was granted the Berlin Art Prize (2019).

This year, the artist will be part of the 12th SITE SANTA FE International (from June 2025) as well as “Berserk & Pyrrhia - Contemporary and medieval art” at Frac Île-de-France, Paris (from March 2025). Recent selected group shows include Temnikova & Kasela Galler, Tallinn (2025); Maison Populaire, Montreuil (2024); CAPC Musée d’art contemporain de Bordeaux (2023); Lore Deutz - Atelierhaus Kunstwerk Köln e.V., Cologne (2022); CAL (Centre d’Archive Laïque), Charleroi (2022); Kinderhook & Caracas, Berlin (2022); Petzel Gallery, New York (2021); Kunstverein Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf (2019); Casa Cristea Schneider, Berlin (2019); TRAMPS, New York (2018); Museum Ludwig, Cologne (2017); Kunstmuseum Solingen, Solingen (2015); Künstlerverein Malkasten, Düsseldorf (2013).

Agnes Scherer’s works are featured in the permanent collections of important institutions and museums, including The Long Museum, Shanghai; FRAC Champagne-Ardenne, Reims; Sigg Art Foundation; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; KOLUMBA Museum, Cologne and Kunsthaus NRW Kornelimünster, Aachen.