Itinerary: Zürich Art Weekend 2025
Rebecca Ackroyd, The World as I see it (Series), 2022-ongoing as part of the exhibition with Emma Jung Tage und Nächte (Day and Night) at Cabaret Voltaire 2025.
Highlights during Zürich Art Weekend, from Friday, 13 to Sunday, 15 June 2025, included Rebecca Ackroyd’s artist talk and exhibition at Cabaret Voltaire, meeting Rosalind Nashashibi during her opening at Galerie Urs Meile, and the glamorous reception of Art in the Park at Hotel Baur Au Lac, with a presentation of new paintings responding to the architecture of Salon I and II by Louisa Gagliardi, our Art Guides World’s Guide to Zürich.
The busy three day itinerary was Art Guides World’s first, from Aotearoa to Zürich we hit the ground running to explore what the city was offering for ZAW.
Day One – Friday started in the afternoon at Löwenbräukunst – an art centre with museums, galleries, and restaurants. Our journey began by meeting at LOI, a vegetarian bistro within the complex, followed to a special introduction to Gallery House, the city’s new art fair, with the founder Lorenzo Bernet.
We then explored exhibitions within the art centre, including Klara Liden’s massive installation across two floors of the Kunsthalle encouraging visitors to consider the aesthetics and significance of liminal spaces of urban transformation. Other exhibitions to note include: the immense colourfield paintings by Ed Clark at Hauser & Wirth; a selection of works questioning censorship by Gustav Metzger at Luma Westbau; The Last Day, a poetic stop-motion film and selection of drawings by Rachel Rose; and the collection of abstract works presented by Museum Haus Konstruktiv.
The day ended with a performance 'Les Lobbys Auront-Ils La Peau Des Abeilles?' by Anne-Lise Costeat at Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, followed by a DJ Set with Yamuna at Löwenbräukunst.
Day Two – Saturday began with a visit to the contemporary wing of Kunsthaus Zürich, a stunning building by Chipperfield Architects housing major European art collections and contemporary exhibitions by world-renowned artists. Having entered the exhibition through a giant papier mâché mouth, we then joined the artist Monster Chetwynd herself for a tour of her exhibition. Chetwynd guided us through various head-like grottos which housed archival materials of her practice which is grounded in performance.
A few minutes walk from Kunsthaus, we attended an artist talk by our local guide of the weekend Louisa Gagliardi, across the road from her gallery Eva Presenhuber. Gaglidardi discussed Many Moons, her first institutional solo show in Switzerland at MASI Lugano and accompanying book with MASI’s Curator Francesca Benini and the Art Director of Mousse Publishing, Francesco Valtolina.
We then continued to galleries near Rämistrasse in the centre of Zürich by the lake, with highlights including the group exhibition at Presenhuber, various installations at Mai 36, and Galerie Urs Meile, where we met the artist Rosalind Nashashibi and author of the exhibition text Adam Szymczyk.
For a refresher, we head to Cabaret Voltaire the birthplace of the Dada art movement in 1916, for a drink and snack before another artist talk. This time Rebecca Ackroyd discussed her exhibition Tage und Nächte (Day and Night) with Jennifer Higgie, long-time Frieze art magazine editor and author of The Other Side: A Journey into Women, Art and the Spirit World, followed by a viewing of the exhibition and a chance to discuss with the artist to close the day.
Day Three – Slowing the pace for Sunday, we attended the private opening and cocktail on the immaculate lakeside lawns of Hotel Baur Au Lac for the 23rd edition of Art in the Park.
Sculptures throughout the garden included those by Jean-Marie Appriou, Valentin Carron, Sam Falls, and Mark Handforth. Inside, in Salon I and II, we viewed the solo exhibition of new paintings by Louisa Gagliardi, which reproduce the architecture of the ornate rooms in a trompe l'oeil effect.
We ended the weekend with an informal dinner artists and friends at Le Relais de l'Entrecote… fuel ahead of a busy Monday at Basel!
Image credits: Installation views, Art in the Salon XXIII- Louisa Gagliardi, Baur au Lac Park, Zurich, 2025; Louisa Gagliardi, Reunion (Room 5), Reunion (Room 6), Reunion (Room 10), from the exhibition. All images courtesy Galerie Eva Presenhuber.
See more in our story highlights from Zürich @artguides.world on Instagram. Read Louisa Gagliardi’s Guide to Zürich on Art Guides World.
