Elmgreen & Dragset and the exhibition arc from Frankfurt to Berlin

From the AD HOC NEWS Art Desk » Award & Prize Desk - The editors cover exhibitions, auctions, collections, prizes and artistic positions. Published: August 20, 2026 · Last checked: August 20, 2026, 11:13 AM

Elmgreen & Dragset have turned the Städel Museum in Frankfurt into a stage where domestic scenes collide with museum routines. Their ongoing exhibition Stillleben mit Gemüse structures the institution as a sequence of sculptural vignettes that test how viewers move through art history.

The exhibition path through Frankfurt

The solo exhibition Stillleben mit Gemüse at the Städel Museum in Frankfurt opened on May 20, 2026 and is scheduled to run until mid-January 2027, transforming galleries into settings that mix everyday furniture with canonical paintings. A Städel Museum exhibition page describes how their installations set up an interplay of reality and illusion across the collection.

In this show, Elmgreen & Dragset respond to the museum’s architecture and permanent holdings with works that often resemble half-familiar interiors, such as domestic living rooms or institutional waiting areas, inserting their sculptural language into a collection spanning over 700 years of art. A detailed journal feature by Pace Gallery emphasizes how the duo uses the museum as a canvas for choreographing visitors’ movement through these staged environments.

Elmgreen & Dragset in current group contexts

Parallel to Frankfurt, Elmgreen & Dragset appear in several group exhibitions in 2026, including Interactions at the Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn, which runs from May 1 to November 1, 2026 and focuses on how contemporary artists activate institutional space. A news update from Galerie Max Hetzler notes their participation in this show alongside their Frankfurt solo project. The gallery’s announcement situates their work among a broader set of spatial experiments.

Elmgreen & Dragset also figure in the Berlin group exhibition Goodbye Sadness, Hello Sadness at Pace’s Die Tankstelle space, where works like But I’m on The Guest List (2007–2015) revisit club and nightlife codes through sculptural motifs such as a polished “VIP” door that leads nowhere. Coverage of the show highlights how their contribution engages with ideas of inclusion, exclusion and the emotional economies of nightlife, and it underscores how their practice travels from museums to more informal, nightlife-inflected environments.

The work core between fiction and institution

Elmgreen & Dragset’s practice centers on sculptural and installation-based interventions that reframe how viewers encounter social spaces, from swimming pools and public squares to museum galleries and club-like environments. Their projects frequently install full-scale architectural fragments that function as both sculpture and stage for imagining how institutions shape behavior.

Where the artist stands now

Elmgreen & Dragset’s institutional presence in 2026 is marked by the extended run of Stillleben mit Gemüse in Frankfurt, a constellation of group shows across Europe and a continued focus on installations that test the boundaries between everyday architecture and curated display.

This article was produced with a.i. support and editorially reviewed. All statements without guarantee; auction results, exhibition dates and awards may change at short notice.