Sammlung Scharf-Gerstenberg to Stage 'In the Shadow of Surrealism' in Berlin

Berlin's Sammlung Scharf-Gerstenberg will examine the darker, postwar permutations of Surrealism this winter with In the Shadow of Surrealism: HR Giger, Beksiński, Ruppert, Lynch, running from December 18 through May 2, 2027.

The exhibition directly integrates visionary and cult figures into the context of an established Surrealist institutional collection. Tracing the trajectory of the historic avant-garde into postwar nightmare imagery, the show focuses on psychological tension, bodily corruption, and industrial alienation.

Swiss artist H.R. Giger anchors the presentation with his signature "biomechanical" aesthetic, which merged human anatomy with cold machinery and achieved mainstream renown through his designs for Ridley Scott’s 1979 film Alien. His airbrushed dystopias find a dialogue with the late Polish artist Zdzisław Beksiński, whose untitled, desolate oil-on-fiberboard landscapes channel what he termed "Fantastic Realism" – depicting skeletal architectures and post-apocalyptic decay.

Completing the lineup are Michael Ruppert and the late American filmmaker David Lynch, whose mixed-media paintings, assemblages, and distorted figurative studies mine European Surrealism and domestic dread. Lynch's tactile surfaces, encrusted with resin, tar, and text, underline how the Surrealist investigation of the unconscious evolved into raw cinematic and biological unease.