Opening: January 30, 2026 | 7 p.m.
On View: January 31 – July 5, 2026
January 27, 2026 (Brühl, Germany) – January 27, 2026 (Brühl, Germany) – The solo exhibition Headless by Marianna Simnett brings together both new and earlier works by the artist, highlighting her deep connection to the ideas of Surrealism. In an expansive installation, her multidisciplinary practice unfolds like a dreamscape - shifting between video, artificial intelligence, sculpture, painting, and music. A world both strange and seductive emerges, inviting viewers into a maze of fractured realities and uncanny encounters.
The title of the exhibition Headless is borrowed from Max Ernst's first collage novel, La femme 100 têtes (The Hundred Headless Woman, 1929), whose influence resonates throughout the show. A new series of paintings, produced especially for the exhibition, takes direct inspiration from this book, in which Ernst composed a loose sequence of eerie images, often featuring his feathered alter ego, Loplop. Marianna Simnett uses this as a starting point to interweave past and present - bringing together current events, mythology, and her own alter egos to form new, hybrid narratives.
Curated by Madeleine Frey and Sarah Louisa Henn.
The accompanying catalog Headless, published by Hirmer Publishers, will feature contributions by Cecilia Alemani, Madeleine Frey, Sarah Louisa Henn, and Lisa Tuttle.
NOTES TO EDITORS
The exhibition Headless by Marianna Simnett will be on view at the Max Ernst Museum from January 31 – July 5, 2026.
The opening reception will be held on January 30, 2026 at 7 p.m. The evening will feature the following speakers: the Chair of the Rhineland Regional Council, Prof. Dr. Jürgen Wilhelm, Chairman of the Board of the Max Ernst Foundation, and Madeleine Frey, Director of the Max Ernst Museum Brühl of the LVR. The artist will be present. The program includes a reading by Svenja Wasser from Lisa Tuttle’s Blood of the Host, followed by a DJ set by Alisa Berger.
Address
Comesstraße 42
50321 Brühl
Opening Hours
Tuesday – Sunday | 11 am – 6 pm
Closed on Mondays
About Marianna Simnett
Marianna Simnett (b. 1986, London) lives and works in Berlin and New York. In early 2026 she will be the subject of two major solo exhibitions at the Max Ernst Museum, Brühl, and at Secession, Vienna. Her work was part of last year‘s Art Basel Parcours sector and her solo exhibition WINNER was recently on view at Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin. Her first work for the stage, entitled GORGON, commissioned by LAS Art Foundation premiered at HAU 2, Berlin in 2023. Her work The Severed Tail was presented at the 59th Venice Biennale: The Milk of Dreams and at the 66th BFI London Film Festival, British Film Institute, London. Her work has been exhibited internationally in solo shows at venues including City Gallery Wellington, Wellington; Copenhagen Contemporary, Copenhagen; MA, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane; Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem; Kunsthalle Zürich, Zürich; MMK, Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt; The New Museum, New York; and Zabludowicz Collection, London. Selected recent group exhibitions include Manifesta 15, Barcelona; Yours Truly, Nahmad Contemporary, New York; Topalekuak, Tabakalera, San Sebastian; 1.5 Degrees, Kunsthalle Mannheim; The King Is Dead, Long Live the Queen, Museum Frieder Burda, Baden-Baden; Espressioni: The Epilogue, Castello di Rivoli, Turin; Prize of the Böttcherstraße, Kunsthalle Bremen, Bremen; British Art Show 9, various cities; A Fire in my Belly, Julia Stoschek Foundation, Berlin; Unprecedented Times, Kunsthaus Bregenz; and The Body Electric, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis.
Image Credits:
Marianna Simnett, Headless #1, Oil on canvas, 2025. Courtesy the artist and Société, Berlin. Photo: Thomas Müller