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Sarah Lucas doesn’t appear particularly apologetic in her 2000 self-portrait Selfish in Bed II. Standing with her hands on her hips, the British artist wears a black T-shirt with the words “SELFISH IN BED” printed across the front. Next April, that cheeky photograph will set the tone for a major group exhibition celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Julia Stoschek Collection in Düsseldorf, Germany.
Aptly titled Selfish in Bed, the exhibition opens on April 10, 2027, and will bring together 52 works by 43 artists, including Tracey Emin, Bill Viola, Wolfgang Tillmans, and Bruce Nauman. Selfish in Bed marks the inaugural exhibition of the reopened Julia Stoschek Foundation’s Düsseldorf headquarters, which closed for renovations in April 2025.
Curated by Krist Gruijthuijsen, the director of Finland’s EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art and former director of Berlin’s KW Institute for Contemporary Art, the show looks at how we construct our identities, express our sexuality, and present ourselves to the world.
The exhibition takes the bed as its starting point. It’s a place increasingly of contradictions: It’s private and vulnerable, yet inter-connected, where we spend hours scrolling through the images and opinions that shape how we see ourselves. The show explores that tension through works spanning the late 1960s to the present, including several that the foundation has never exhibited before.
There are more than a few highlights. Emin’s Why I Never Became a Dancer (1995), Simon Fujiwara‘s Joanne (2016/2018), and Hannah Wilke’s Through the Large Glass (1976), all explore women’s relationships with their bodies, sexuality, and public image. Meanwhile Monica Bonvicini‘s Destroy She Said (1998) challenges traditional domestic roles, and Ed Atkins’s Us Dead Talk Love (2012) examines questions of identity and authenticity in the digital age.
The exhibition is set to span two floors, and include video projections, mirrored surfaces, glass walls, and television monitors creating an immersive environment. Works by Viola, Tillmans, and Rosemarie Trockel will be presented together in a grouping that explores the human experience from birth onward.
For Stoschek, whose collection now includes more than 1,000 works by over 300 artists, the anniversary is also an opportunity to reflect on two decades of collecting.
“I am a very emotional collector,” Stoschek said in a statement. “An artwork has to get under my skin. I need images that stay with me.”
The Düsseldorf headquarters, housed in a converted industrial building dating to 1907, has undergone an extensive renovation by Berlin architecture firm Kuehn Malvezzi, which originally adapted the space for exhibitions in 2007. In Berlin, the foundation closed its exhibition space at the end of October after a decade of programming, shifting its attention toward Düsseldorf and international projects.
A publication marking the collection’s 20th anniversary will accompany the exhibition, with contributions from writers and critics including Rachel Cusk, Chris Kraus, Dean Kissick, and McKenzie Wark.
Selfish in Bed will run from April 10 through December 19, 2027, with an opening reception on April 9.