Image: Kestnergesellschaft, New York
Kestner Gesellschaft will close Richard Hawkins’ solo exhibition 'Potentialities' with a finissage on 2 August 2026 in Hannover, bringing together guided tours, a lecture and conversation with curator and writer Anya Harrison, and a workshop for families. The programme runs from 12 pm to 6 pm and is presented as the final public event around the exhibition.
According to the institution’s announcement, 'Potentialities' gathers works from eight bodies of work made over the past 20 years. The exhibition includes paintings, sculptures, ceramic reliefs and AI-generated videos, and it reflects Hawkins’ long-running interest in close looking, research and the relationship between fan culture and desire. The Kestner Gesellschaft describes the artist’s practice as rooted in meticulous, even “delightfully nerdy,” research.
The closing day is structured around repeated public access to the exhibition. Leonie Funke will lead a guided tour at 12 pm, followed by another public tour with Gabriele Sand at 4 pm. At 5 pm, Eva Birkenstock and Alexander Wilmschen will lead a farewell tour. The institution’s event page also lists a Kestner Reading Group on Richard Hawkins: 'Potentialities' for 30 July, signalling that the finissage sits within a broader programme of exhibition-related interpretation rather than a standalone closing reception.
The central talk takes place at 3 pm, when Anya Harrison presents 'On the Other Side of the Skin. The Monstrous and the Abject' in English, moderated by Alexander Wilmschen. The lecture draws on Harrison’s research into monstrosity, the abject and figures that unsettle identity and social norms. The email states that the talk will also consider how these themes appear in the exhibition 'Under the Skin' at MOCO Panacée in Montpellier, on view through October, and place Hawkins’ work there within the context of his broader oeuvre.
The source material identifies Harrison as a curator and writer based in Montpellier, where she has been a curator at MOCO Montpellier Contemporain since 2019. It also notes her academic background in art history and literature at the University of Oxford, the Université de la Sorbonne – Paris IV and the Courtauld Institute of Art in London. Her research interests include sexual and body politics, as well as transgression, representation and marginality, approached from feminist, avant-garde and subcultural perspectives.
Families are also being invited into the closing programme through 'I Copy and Transform Workshop for curious families, ages 3 +', scheduled from 3 pm to 5 pm. The institution notes that the café will serve cold drinks, coffee specialities and freshly baked pastries in cooperation with Bäckerei Göing. Opening hours for the Kestner Gesellschaft are listed as Tuesday to Sunday from 11 am to 6 pm, with Thursday opening until 8 pm, at Goseriede 11 in Hannover.
