Deutsche Bank expands its global art activities by opening its own exhibition gallery

Deutsche Bank KunstHalle opens in Berlin in early 2013 / Imran Qureshi from Pakistan is “Artist of the Year” 2013

Deutsche Bank continues to expand its art activities. In spring 2013, the bank will open its own exhibition gallery, the Deutsche Bank KunstHalle in Berlin, creating an even more globally oriented platform for contemporary art. Berlin will thus remain a focal point for Deutsche Bank’s cultural engagement. With the first-rate exhibition “Visions of Modernity,” which opens this week, the bank will conclude its partnership with the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation on a high note.

In addition, the bank has named Imran Qureshi “Artist of the Year” 2013. A large solo exhibition devoted to the Pakistani artist will be the first event in the Deutsche Bank KunstHalle 2013 program.

“Deutsche Bank KunstHalle is a statement of our commitment to Berlin. By establishing our own platform, we are building on our successful partnership with the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and sustaining our longstanding commitment to contemporary art from all over the world. Here we will make a valuable contribution to art which reaches beyond Berlin. Our exhibition gallery should be the place where the work of young promising talents can be seen for the first time,” says Stefan Krause, the Deutsche Bank Management Board member who will assume responsibility for the bank’s worldwide art activities.

The Governing Mayor of Berlin, Klaus Wowereit, adds: "With the Deutsche Bank KunstHalle, Berlin has gained an additional attraction as a cultural centre. It underlines the city’s reputation as a young and cosmopolitan artistic metropolis. The new exhibition gallery also shows that Deutsche Bank is serious about its commitment to Berlin.”

The Deutsche Bank KunstHalle will start in April 2013 with a large solo exhibition by the bank’s “Artist of the Year” 2013. The Pakistani artist Imran Qureshi was selected on the recommendation of the Deutsche Bank Global Art Advisory Council, consisting of the curators Okwui Enwezor, Hou Hanru, and Udo Kittelmann. The curator Victoria Noorthoorn, resident in Buenos Aries, will succeed Nancy Spector on this Council.

Imran Qureshi is the fourth artist honored by the bank in this way, and follows Wangechi Mutu (Kenya), Yto Barrada (France and Morocco) and Roman Ondák (Slovakia).

Imran Qureshi is one of the most important figures on the Pakistani art scene. The artist, who was born in 1972, lives in Lahore where he teaches at the National College of Art. In his paintings and installations, he combines the centuries-old Islamic art form of miniature painting with conceptual approaches and elements of contemporary abstract painting.

In addition to the solo exhibition featuring work by the current “Artist of the Year”, the Deutsche Bank KunstHalle will show regular exhibitions of works from the Deutsche Bank Collection, under the direction of our external curators. Cooperative projects with international partner museums and Berlin cultural institutions will also be part of the program.

Says Stefan Krause: “The Deutsche Guggenheim set standards in many respects. With our new Kunsthalle we want to take another step forward and offer more young talents an institutional platform. At the same time, we want to close a gap by exhibiting young art from Berlin in the place where it is being created faster than state institutions.“

More information on Deutsche Bank’s art activities can be found at db-artmag.com and db.com/art