ART-Hotel Braun

30 Years of Spray Banana – Thomas Baumgärtel in Kirchheimbolanden

In 2016, the world's largest spray-painted banana by street artist Thomas Baumgärtel was created on the facade of the Hotel Braun.

His banana is more than just graffiti: since 1986 he has used it to mark art locations worldwide and make art in public spaces visible. At the same time, it represents themes such as consumerism, brand impact, and social criticism.

In Kirchheimbolanden, the spray banana becomes a work of art and a special attraction due to its size and location.

Gesine Kikol – Total Vanitas. Yeah! Solo exhibition of paintings and still lifes. The exhibition opened in August 2016 at the Hotel Braun – ART Hotel in Kirchheimbolanden and explores transience, joie de vivre, and the duality of life and death. Gesine Kikol combines Baroque imagery with contemporary painting. Her works include paintings of rabbits, still lifes, and symbolic objects that reflect the beauty, emptiness, and nothingness of earthly existence. The exhibition invites viewers to contemplate meaning, mortality, and the affirmation of life, and to experience the tension between "Vanitas" and "Yeah!"

Artwork of the Year 2017 – Ann-Kristin Hamm: Solo Exhibition of Paintings. On January 29, 2017, the Hotel Braun – ART Hotel launched its new tradition of "Artwork of the Year." For one year, an outstanding work of contemporary art will be accessible to hotel guests and visitors. On display is a large-format painting by Berlin artist Ann-Kristin Hamm (born 1977), 2013, acrylic and oil on burlap, 215 x 160 cm. Hamm combines abstraction with allusions to familiar subjects such as snails, butterflies, and blossoms, inviting viewers to discover associations between the figurative and the abstract. The exhibition establishes Kirchheimbolanden as a meeting place for artists and encourages exchange about contemporary art.

"Not in my kitchen!" Group exhibition with paintings, sculptures, objects and video

The exhibition opened in August 2017 during the Culture Night in Kirchheimbolanden and focuses on the theme of "the kitchen" as a place of everyday life, community, and social change. It is less about cooking itself and more about role models, relationships, and power dynamics within the private sphere.

Five artists present different perspectives on this topic:

Johannes Kithil works with luminous painting; his work gave the exhibition its title and plays with irony and authority.
Elisabeth Windisch creates experimental sculptures from unusual materials that develop as if in a "witch's kitchen".
Katharina Wackermann exhibits concrete heads and geometric works that deal with form and structure.
Linda Nadji transforms everyday objects into new, meaningful works of art.
Ae Ran Kim presents video works that address themes such as transformation, perception, and social rituals.

The exhibition unites different artistic approaches and invites visitors to reconsider the kitchen as a cultural and social space.

Artwork of the Year 2018 – Martin Noël: Solo Exhibition of Photography and Graphics. On January 28, 2018, the Hotel Braun – ART Hotel presented the “Artwork of the Year 2018.” The exhibition featured the photographic work “January” (2006, Diasec, 90 x 120 cm) by the Bonn-based artist Martin Noël (1956–2010), as well as three series of small-format graphics. Noël’s works focus on line, surface, and color, enlarging everyday motifs into independent visual worlds. They combine precise graphic craftsmanship with an intense perception of space and light. The exhibition is open to hotel guests and visitors alike and invites them to discover Noël’s artistic perspective on reality.

Ke Li – Island, Part 1: Floral Transformations. Solo exhibition of miniature sculptures. On August 10, 2018, ARTKIBO opened the exhibition "Island" by Ke Li at the Hotel Braun – ART Hotel. The exhibition features fragile, floral sculptures made from collected natural materials, combining illusion, surrealism, and poetic vibrancy. The works reference mythical creatures from Chinese mythology and play with light, shadow, and spatial arrangement. "Island" represents identity, freedom, and the connection between nature and imagination. The exhibition is open to hotel guests and visitors until January 18, 2019.

Artwork of the Year 2019 – Yutao Gao: “CUPIDO” Solo Exhibition with Photo Prints On January 27, 2019, the Hotel Braun – ART Hotel presented the “Artwork of the Year 2019”: “CUPIDO” (2016, C-Print, Diasec, 40 x 55 cm) by Yutao Gao. Additional photo prints by the artist are also on display at the hotel. In his work, Gao explores surface, space, and three-dimensionality, often starting with photographs of classical sculptures from antiquity and architecture from the Renaissance and Baroque periods. Through digital scans and color manipulation, he creates multi-layered, iridescent works that reinterpret time and space.

Max Siegenbruk “Idyll” Solo Exhibition with Paintings, Drawings, and Photo Prints On Friday, August 9, 2019, the Hotel Braun – ART Hotel opened the exhibition “Idyll” by Max Siegenbruk. On display are the small-format works from the “Idyll” series (charcoal/oil/oil pastel on canvas, each 30 x 40 cm), which are combined to form a floral Gesamtkunstwerk (total work of art). These works are complemented by playful series such as “Cadavre Exquis,” self-portraits (“my new clothes”), and action figures. At first glance, the works depict realistic motifs, but upon closer inspection, they unfold complex interpretive spaces between humanity, nature, and society.

Solo exhibition with works from 2009–2019

To kick off the 2020 cultural year, the ART Hotel Braun presented works by Vanessa von Wendt from 2009 to 2019. The exhibition offered insight into the artistic development of the former student of Markus Lüpertz. Among the pieces on display was the "Artwork of the Year 2020," a large-format painting that completely covers the underside of the hotel's staircase. The works combine biblical and everyday scenes, symbolic objects, and personal experiences, inviting guests to engage in a dialogue with contemporary art.

Timofej Kratz „Mural Painting“

Timofej Kratz created a large-scale graffiti mural on the facade of the ART Hotel Braun. The Russian artist primarily works with spray paint on large canvases and walls, his works oscillating between painting and street art and exploring the dynamics of line, color, and space. Despite adverse weather conditions, Kratz was able to complete the work on the hotel. It is closely related to the exhibition inside the hotel, which opened digitally via a Zoom vernissage, and showcases the interaction between architecture, urban aesthetics, and contemporary art.

Solo exhibition of paintings and objects by Anna Christina Nendza

In August 2021, the summer exhibition of Düsseldorf artist Anna Christina Nendza opened at the ART-Hotel Braun in Kirchheimbolanden. On display were paintings, painted wooden objects, screen prints on canvas, and furniture pieces such as the "Tomato Pouf".

The artist incorporates everyday motifs, animals, café scenes, and food into her work, combining them with playful forms and wordplay. Nendza's humor and the ease with which she transforms familiar objects and scenes into new visual worlds are typical of her work.

The exhibition offered guests and visitors an insight into the artistic diversity of Nendza and the opportunity to experience contemporary art in direct dialogue with the hotel space.

Solo exhibition of works on paper by Silja Wendt

The exhibition opened on the last Sunday in January at the ART-Hotel Braun and presented the artwork of the year 2022. Silja Wendt showed around a dozen works made from recycled paper, paintings with paper on canvas, and a multi-part installation made of handmade paper that extended over the walls of the upper stairwell.

Silja Wendt (born 1996 in Münster) studies painting at the Düsseldorf Art Academy in the class of Prof. Ellen Gallagher. She explores the mutability of paper: large-format rectangular works are reminiscent of tapestries, while wafer-thin layers are assembled into floor or wall installations. Her works evoke associations with maps, animal forms, or abstract structures.

The exhibition transforms the multi-story hotel into a cohesive art space, where the artist's materials and methods reflect the cycle of growth and decay in nature. Silja Wendt thus demonstrates how artistic processes can enter into a dialogue with architecture and everyday space.

Solo exhibition featuring the work series “IN BETWEEN” by Susanne Krell

In January 2023, the ART-Hotel Braun presented its winter exhibition featuring the "ZWISCHENDRIN" series of works by artist Susanne Krell. The fifteen-part series tells stories of people, events, and cultural exchange in Kirchheimbolanden and was purchased by the hotel to make the works publicly accessible.

Susanne Krell works with frottages, capturing historical surfaces and traces, and integrates them into a new narrative about violence, destruction, and resistance. Her works combine paper, canvas, photography, video, projections, and collages to create a multi-layered art space that links local history with global experiences.

Monika Kropshofer „What Truth Is“

Solo exhibition featuring photography and painting

In January 2024, the ART-Hotel Braun presented the exhibition "What Truth Is" by the internationally renowned artist Monika Kropshofer (born 1952 in Neuwied, lives in Boppard). The exhibition featured photographs altered through painterly interventions and double exposures.

The large-format works combine landscape and architectural photography from various countries with constructive forms, creating new levels of reality. Through the superimposition of multiple exposures and painterly manipulation, transparent, multi-layered motifs emerge, raising questions about reality, representation, and time. The exhibition invites visitors to visually experience these complex interrelationships of space, time, and matter.

Bahar Batvand & Oksana Pyzh Duo Exhibition “Intersection” – Paintings, Installations and Objects

On Sunday, January 26, 2025, the ART-Hotel Braun in Kirchheimbolanden will open its winter exhibition and present the artwork of the year 2025. Under the title "Intersection," Bahar Batvand and Oksana Pyzh will show works that were largely created specifically for the hotel.

Bahar Batvand (born 1974, Iran) studied painting in Tehran and later at the Düsseldorf Art Academy, where she graduated as a master student. Oksana Pyzh (born 1989, Ukraine) studied architecture in Kharkiv and has lived and worked as a freelance artist in Düsseldorf since 2022. In this metropolis of contemporary art, the two artists found each other and developed a shared artistic language.

The exhibition connects personal life experiences with new positions in contemporary art. Many works were created specifically for the spaces of the ART Hotel and are on display exclusively in Kirchheimbolanden. "Intersection" explores themes of reality, freedom, and cultural reflection, inviting guests to engage in a dialogue with the artworks.

Arpad Dobriban “Foodprints” Solo exhibition with photography and object art

In August 2025, the ART-Hotel Braun in Kirchheimbolanden presented the exhibition "Foodprints" by the Hungarian artist Arpad Dobriban. For decades, Dobriban has explored the cultural practice of cooking and the handling of food in his art. In two series, he examines industrially produced foods, staging casts of which he creates in plaster molds and presents in colored silicone, thus addressing the relationship between substance, appearance, and everyday life. He also presents text series in Polaroid pinhole photographs, in which words merge seamlessly into complex visual chains.

The
ART Hotel Braun

Previous exhibitions

2016 - Thomas Baumgärtel

2016 - kikol gesine

2017 - Ann-Kristin Hamm

2017 - Ae Ran kim, Johannes Kithil, Linda Nadji, Katharina Wackermann, Elisabeth Windisch

2018 - Martin Noel

2018 - Ke Li

2019 - Yutao gao

2019 - MAXIMILIAN SIEGENBRUK

2019 - Linda Nadji

2020 - Vanessa von Wendt

2020 - Echo Can luo

2021- TIMOFEJ Kratz

2021 - Anna Nendza

2022- Silja WENDT

2022 - Janine böckelmann

2023 - SUSANNE KRELL

2023 - Kristine Schoepflin

2024 - Monika Kropshofer

2024 - Mira Posingies

2025 - Bahar Batvand & Oksana Pyzh

2025 - Arpad Dobriban

KdJ 2016-2025

Past Exhibitions

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