Image Credits
Press event
19.03.2026 11am - 12:30pm
Place
Kunsthaus Graz, Space01, Space02
Curators
Katrin Bucher Trantow and Andreja Hribernik, Katrin Bucher Trantow and Laura Smith
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The Kunsthaus Graz marks the start of this year's annual theme “BLOOM” with two exhibitions: “30% Dandelion” brings together over 20 contemporary artistic positions dedicated to the flower and its direct connection to humans, understanding it as a symbol of radical adaptation and resistance, linking ecological crises with the hope for a symbiotic, more just coexistence. “Hybrid Pleasures” is the first comprehensive retrospective of British artist Helen Chadwick in over two decades. Her radical, sensual works enter into dialogue with current sculptures by Liesl Raff and open up new perspectives on the body, materiality, and the motif of flowering as an expression of the hybrid and the living. A press tour of both exhibitions will take place on Wednesday, March 19, at 11 a.m.
Further information
Hybride Pleasures: Koproduziert mit The Hepworth Wakefield. In Zusammenarbeit mit Museo Novecento, Florence
Joiri Minaya, Shield, 2022
© Joiri Minaya
Agnieszka Polska, "The Book of Flowers", 2024, Videostill
Courtesy der Künstlerin
Anita Fuchs, "Ein Stilleben Aus dem Hier und Jetzt", Kartierung, Kunsthaus Graz, 2025
Foto: Clemens Nestroy © Bildrecht, Wien 2026
Anna Jermolaewa, "The Penultimate", 2017
Courtesy der Künstlerin © Bildrecht, Wien 2026
Barbara Frischmuth, "Schaufel, Rechen, Gartenschere", 2023
Courtesy der Künstlerin
Claudia Larcher, Still Life 3000, No09, 2023-2024
Courtesy der Künstlerin © Bildrecht, Wien 2026
Jonas Mekas, "Requiem", 2019, Videostill
Courtesy of Jonas Mekas Estate
Sonya Schönberger, "Aldi", Fotoserie "Kenyan Roses for the Kingdom", 2019
© Sonya Schönberger
Suzanne-Anker, When Crystals spawn Flower, 2023
Courtesy of the artist
Viltė Bražiūnaitė & Tomas Sinkevičius, Sunflower, 2022, Videostill
Courtesy der Künstler*innen
More images
Helen Chadwick with Piss Flowers from the exhibition ‘Helen Chadwick: Effluvia’, Serpentine Gallery, 1994
Photo: Kippa Matthews © Kippa Matthews
Helen Chadwick, Loop my Loop, 1991-2.
Harris Museum, Preston. © Estate of Helen Chadwick. Photo courtesy of Richard Saltoun Gallery, London, Rome and New York
Helen Chadwick, Wreath to Pleasure, No. 6 (Chrysanthemums, Angel Delight)
© Estate of Helen Chadwick. Photo courtesy Richard Saltoun Gallery, London, Rome and New York
Installation view, Liesl Raff, GEP, Maag Areal, Zurich, 2025
Photo: Stefan Altenburger
Liesl Raff, Crush 2, 2024
Courtesy the artist and Galerie Eva Presenhuber Zurich / Vienna © the artist. Photo: Stefan Altenbuger
Flowers and flowering plants have accompanied humans for centuries as symbols, useful plants, and cultural expressions across all borders. They represent beauty and healing, but also economic, scientific, and colonial developments.
Under the title BLOOM, the Universalmuseum Joanneum and the Kunsthaus Graz will present ten exhibitions in 2026 showing how flowers connect cultures, shape myths, and accompany human life from birth to death.
