BERLIN—Michael Kalmbach’s watercolors, sculptures, and objects, shown last spring at Chelsea’s Robert Miller gallery, appear to be the stuff of fairy tales, but they have more in common with the gruesome, disconcerting fare of the Brothers Grimm than with the Disneyfied versions more familiar to American audiences. In “Kinderzimmer” (“Nursery”), his second solo exhibition at Berlin’s Wohnmaschine, Kalmbach's latest works reveal their Surrealistic nature only at second glance: An apparently kid-friendly wallpaper proves decidedly adult upon close inspection, and even the weightless characters populating the gentle watercolors seem to have lost their innocence.

Here are the Berlin- and Frankfurt-based artist’s recommendations for shows to see this weekend in Berlin, several of which employ mediums, themes, or techniques also evident in his own work.

Laura Mars: Heute Jedoch Nicht (But Not Today) at GRP, through December 14
"The theme of the exhibition is interior spaces, and the views of such spaces vary greatly.

"Curators Christoph Bannat and Marcus Weber have constructed in the small gallery even smaller, labyrinthine rooms. The works are either integrated into the walls or are visible, at a distance, through openings in the walls. It reminds me of the unbelievable house in London of the architect Sir John Soane, who built his living space around his paintings and sculptures.

"I also like the selection of artists. New to me are the watercolors from Anna Lea Hucht, who knows how to infuse a conventional room with a dreamlike quality, and Evgenji Kozlov’s Leningrader Album, which appears at first to be pornography, then the diary of a boy just discovering his sexuality. The mingling of experience and fantasy is completely understandable.

"The show closes tomorrow, so hurry up!"

Martin Staedeli: Nachtodog at Galerie Ulf Wetzka, through December 22
"When you walk into first room of this two-room exhibition, you are surrounded by life-size figures leaning against the walls. Sculptures are usually mute, but these are even muter—they stare into space. I hear the wind blowing, but the windows are closed. Strange. The ragged structures are made of newspaper, with the hands and faces intensified with papier-mache. This work interests me, because I work with the strange material as well. In the second room there’s a dwarf sitting on the floor. He’s not much more than a pile of trash, but his eye, peering out from under his pointy hat, meets mine. I love the tension of this tightrope walk between order and randomness."

Bettina Krieg: Arbeiten Auf Papier (Works on Paper) at Spesshardt und Klein, through December 22
"Of the works on display here—mostly red or black ink drawings in different sizes—I especially like the wallpaper that covers not only a wall but also the furniture, cups, and dissembled chair parts placed before it. There’s a similar technique in my current exhibition: The two-dimensional wall flows into a third dimension. Krieg’s works contain networks of recurring motifs—the wings of a bird, car parts, elements of a plant—that crystallize into cohesive pictures with far-reaching webs of associations."

Alicja Kwade: Junge Sterne Rauchen (Young Stars Are Smoking) at Galerie Lena Bruning, through January 12, 2008
"The artist, born in Poland in 1979, has replaced the glass face of a kitchen clock with a convex mirror, linking the unalterable passing of time with the person you see reflected there. I also liked the video projection in the back room, which lends cosmic dimensions to earthly objects such a smoking light bulb (here's where the young stars are smoking)."

Guy Ben-Ner: Stealing Beauty at Daadgalerie, through January 31, 2008
"A video is projected in the spacious front room of this exhibition, which smells like freshly laid carpet and is lined with big, soft pillows. On the screen, the four-person Ben-Ner family has apparently made itself comfortable at Ikea. They’ve staged an entire family drama in the numerous sets that the store’s showrooms provide (the kids are fantastic!). Now and then an astonished shopper wanders through the picture, but it doesn’t seem to bother the unflappable Ben-Ners. I admire the fun way he brings together work and family life."