EIGEN + ART is one of the galleries that made Auguststraße an art street after 1990. Gerd Harry "Judy" Lybke started it in 1983 in his own flat in Leipzig, as one of the few independent galleries in the GDR. In 1992 he opened the Berlin space in Mitte, while the Leipzig gallery moved to the Spinnerei cotton mill. The roster grew with Lybke: Neo Rauch and the New Leipzig School painters, Martin Eder, Olaf Nicolai and the artist and musician Carsten Nicolai.
The Berlin gallery is a ground-floor space at Auguststraße 26, on the same street as KW Institute for Contemporary Art. It mostly shows solo exhibitions of five to eight weeks, each starting with an evening opening. Openings are free and open to everyone. A second space, EIGEN + ART Lab on Torstraße, shows younger artists.
From 12 November to 19 December 2026 the gallery shows Carsten Nicolai: WAVE WEAVE & SONO OBI, with an opening on 12 November.
Visiting
- Hours: Tuesday to Saturday 11am–6pm. Entry is free.
- Accessibility: the Berlin gallery is not step-free. The gallery asks visitors to call ahead on 030 280 66 05 so staff can help.
- How long: half an hour. Combine it with the other galleries along Auguststraße and Linienstraße.
Getting there
S-Bahn Oranienburger Straße is five minutes away, and so is U8 Weinmeisterstraße. Tram M1 stops at Oranienburger Straße/Tucholskystraße.
Nearby
The Sophiensæle theatre is round the corner on Sophienstraße. The Hamburger Bahnhof is a twenty-minute walk west along Invalidenstraße.