Polina Berlin Gallery is pleased to exhibit a solo presentation by German conceptual artist Carolin Eidner for the 2026 edition of Riga Contemporary, on view from July 2 - 5. The presentation will be anchored by Eidner’s THE BABY-LON (THE BODY THAT CARRIES THE WEIGHT), the artist’s monumental, multi-part sculpture that is made in pigmented plaster and takes the form of a kneeling figure.

At once seductive and monstrous, THE BABY-LON fills its enclosed space and appears to test its bounds, an enlarged figure rising nearly high enough to “see” over the walls. On its knees, the figure is in a state of flux and ambivalence. The ambiguity on whether it’s in the process of falling, standing, or in the midst of a dance is left to be considered. In this fleeting moment, THE BABY-LON’s pure mass and exciting visual lure contrasts with the vulnerability of its own transitional and exposed pose. Much like the idea of mathematical singularity – the point at which a function takes an infinite value, like a black hole – the figure is suspended in perpetuity, bringing to the fore concepts of time, liminality and the indefinite. 

Sanded flat by the artist, its smooth surface draws a connection between drawing and sculpture, resulting in a piece that is more than the sum of its parts. The scrawling, animated pink lines and black gestures marking THE BABY-LON unite the work’s fragments, which fit together like pixels in a digital image. The patterns across the lightweight surface of the pigmented plaster evoke an amorphous entity frozen in time. In contrast to the sculpture’s monumental size, Eidner treats and manipulates her materials in a process that meditates on the sculpture’s own physical presence. Disguising bulk into flatness and exposing the trusses on the reverse, Eidner allows the viewer to consider the relationship between its monumentality, material weight, and structural composition into larger questions about perception and authority.

Carolin Eidner’s (b. 1984, Berlin, Germany) practice encompasses sculpture, painting, installation, and video, treating her materials as something to be encoded rather than simply shaped. Implementing plaster, glass, bamboo, silk, and found objects, her chosen materials arrive carrying associations she works to scramble. Many of her surfaces are sanded to a flatness that disguise their bulk, so that a heavy, monumental form can be read as something nearly weightless or screen-like. Eidner identifies the trusses serving as structures of authority and judgement, deconstructing them to ambiguity. Through geometry loosening to gestures and seductive forms shifting to panopticon, Eidner returns to questions of authority, judgement, and the fallibility of perception.

Eidner lives and works in Berlin. She is a graduate of the Düsseldorf Art Academy (2014), where she studied under Rosemarie Trockel, and the University of Applied Arts Vienna (2010), under Erwin Wurm. Eidner has recently held solo exhibitions at Ruttkowski;68, New York (2025) and Düsseldorf (2023); Da in die Front, Düsseldorf (2023); Aurel Schiebler Galerie, Berlin (2022); and Galerie Natalia Hug (2021). Notable group exhibitions include Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf (2023); Kunsthaus NRW, Kornelimünster (2021); and the Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn (2015). Eidner’s work is in the prominent collections of the Bavarian State Painting Collections at the Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich; Kunsthaus NRW, Kornelimünster; and the Collection Becker, Cologne. She has been the recipient of several awards for her innovative material practice, including the 2020 Stiftung Kunstfonds Bonn grant; the NADA Artadia Award (2017) as its first European-based recipient; and the Audi Art Award (2014).

Born

• Berlin, Germany, 1984. Lives and works in Berlin 

Education

• 2010-2014 Art Academy Dusseldorf, Dusseldorf, DE, Prof. Rosemarie Trockel 

• 2009-2010 University of Applied Arts, Vienna, AT, Prof. Erwin Wurm

• 2005-2009 Alanus University for Arts and Social Sciences, Alfter, DE

• Diploma in Cultural Pedagogics and Painting 

One-Person Exhibitions

• 2025 Daddy Dying Sun, Ruttkowski;68, New York, NY (02/21-03/29) 

• 2023 The Cascade Song, Ruttkowski;68, Düsseldorf, DE (06/23-08/06) 

• 2022 The Baby-Lon, Da in die Front, Düsseldorf, DE 
  Adios Modernism, Aurel Schiebler Galerie, Berlin, DE (04/29-06/18) 
  The House That Jack Burnt, Ruttkowski;68, Paris, FR (03/12-04/06) 

• 2021 Britney Goes Mad, Galerie Natalia Hug, Cologne, DE (11/03-01/29) 
  Conceptualising Flesh, POP;68, Cologne, DE 

• 2019 The Subtle Genesis of Emiliano Bruni, Aurel Scheibler, Berlin, DE (11/16-02/08) 
  Quantum Phantom (human myth), Natalia Hug and Aurel Scheibler, Art Cologne, Cologne, DE 

• 2018 We are getting so hot – we will take our clothes off, Natalia Hug Gallery, Cologne, DE 
  Horizon after D (.dracula), Orangerie Schloss Benrath, Düsseldorf, DE 
  Vanishing Blue in Pursuit of Red in Black, Aurel Scheibler, Berlin, DE (02/24-04/07) 

• 2017 Creature of Doubt and Delay, artothek Raum für junge Kunst, Cologne, DE 
  Thousand Suns for a Lonely Man, Langen Foundation, Neuss (Katalog), DE (04/08-08/20) 

• 2016 Spring of Singularity, Natalia Hug, Cologne, DE 

• 2015 Mugshot, Parkhaus, Düsseldorf, DE 

• 2014 Meanwhile „Me”, Natalia Hug, Cologne, DE 

• 2013 Party Delay (no reimbursement authorized), Maschinenhaus Essen (curated by Max Mayer Kat.), Essen, DE 
  Getting Strange in Common Sense, Scotty Enterprise, Berlin, DE  

• 2012 New Dimension of Happiness, Boutique, Cologne, DE 
  Know Something in Spite of Nothing, Galerie Max Mayer, Düsseldorf, DE 
  Death of the Vampire, Manifesta9 Parallel Program, Genk, BE 

Selected Group Exhibitions

• 2026 2025, Ruttkowski;68, Cologne, DE (01/25-03/28) 
  Three Rooms, Ruttkowski;68, Bochum, DE (01/19-04/19) 

• 2025 Body Data, Berthold Pott Galerie, Cologne, DE (09/05-10/18) 
  The Dinner Guest, The Loft, New York, NY 
  We get Closer, Stoffpavilion Cologne, DE (07/04-07/20) 
  Itchy Bloom, Ruttkowski;68 (curated by Carolin Eidner), Cologne, DE (03/30-06/29) 
  Mixed Pickles, Ruttkowski;68, Bochum, DE 
  Benefizauktion, NAK Neuer Aachener Kunstverein, Aachen, DE 

• 2024 Three Painters, Kunstverein Emsdetten, Emsdetten, DE 
  Benefizauktion, NAK Neuer Aachener Kunstverein, Aachen, DE
  Ufer, Berlin, DE  

• 2023 Charly, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, DE 
  Benefizauktion, Neuer Aachener Kunstverein, Aachen, DE 
  Ufer, Berlin, DE  
  Mixed Pickles, Ruttkowski;68, New York, NY 

• 2022 At the Tip of the Tongue, Kunstverein Bad Godesberg, Bonn, DE 

• 2021 Neue Malerei, Kunsthaus NRW, Kornelimünster, DE 
  Means of Escape, Kunsthaus Erfurt, Erfurt, DE 
  Together, NAK Neuer Aachener Kunstverein, Aachen, DE 
  Speaking in Tongues, Blake and Vargas, Berlin, DE 
  Berlin Weekly, Berlin 
  Mixed Pickles, Ruttkowski;68, Berlin/Cologne, DE 

• 2020 Salon der Gegenwart, Hamburg, DE 
  Mixed Pickles, Ruttkowski;68, Berlin/Cologne, DE 

• 2019 Shaped Figure, Kunstverein Krefeld, Kunstverein Mönchengladbach, Mönchengladbach, DE 
  Polke und die Folgen, Akademie-Galerie, Düsseldorf, DE 

• 2018 Jahresgaben, Bonner Kunstverein, Bonn, DE 
  Carolin Eidner, Ina Gerken, Sophie Reinhold, Galerie Tobias Naehring, Leipzig, DE 

• 2017 Fertility Breakdown, Natalia Hug, Cologne, Germany 
  PIN Auktion, Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, DE 

• 2015 Artists Against Aids, Bundeskunsthalle Bonn, Bonn, DE 
  Becker and Friends, Galerie Loevenbruck, Paris, FR 
  Yevgeniya Baras – Carolin Eidner – Adelhyd van Bender, Thomas Erben Gallery, New York, NY 

• 2014 Marres Currents #2, Marres Centre for Contemporary Culture, Maastricht, NL 
  STEADY STATE, Kunstverein Duisburg, Duisburg, DE 
  I’m so Green, Natalia Hug, Cologne, DE 
  Plastic Water, Therme Gallery Tokyo, Tokyo, JP 

• 2013 PWC-Preis, PWC, Düsseldorf, DE 
  Gruppo di Famiglia in un Interno, Galerie Parrotta, Stuttgart, Germany 
  Cleaning a Bed from Morning Dust, Boutique, Cologne, DE 
  Videopräsentation Blackbox, Düsseldorf, DE 
  PostloctationTrouble, Raum Hellrot, Halle (Saale), DE 

• 2011 Waiting for Suicidal Hares, International Video Art Festival, Chongqin, CN  
  The good the bad the indifferent, Künstlerforum, Bonn, DE 
  You can leave your het on, as a part of „von Beuys inspiriert“, Schmela Haus, K21, Düsseldorf, DE 

Art Fairs

• 2026 Polina Berlin Gallery, Riga Contemporary Art Fair, Riga, LV 

• 2017 Natalia Hug, NADA Miami Beach, Miami, FL 

Awards, Fellowships and Residencies

• 2024 Residency, ISCP, New York, NY 

• 2023 Residency, CCA Andratx, Andratx, SP 

• 2020 Award, Stiftung Kunstfonds, Bonn, DE 

• 2017 Award, NADA Artadia Award, Art Basel Miami, FL 

• 2014 Award, Audi Art Award, Düsseldorf, DE 

• 2011 Residency, Kunsthaus Kloster Gravenhorst, Hörstel, DE 

Notable Collections

Bayrische Staatssammlung, Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, DE 
Kunsthaus NRW, Kornelimünster 
Sammlung Becker, Cologne, DE 

Art Viewer | Carolin Eidner | Fairs: Riga Contemporary, July 2 - 5, 2026