Jo Lawson-Tancred

Almost like the rapidly fading recollections of a dream, Sophie von Hellermann’s paintings capture the otherwise intangible sensation of a fleeting moment held in the mind’s eye. Her works are semi-figurative, containing painterly vignettes rendered with a lyrical, light touch that appear almost to swim in a swirling sea of pastel pinks, greens, and blues. Her subject matter borrows from her own life, history, myth, and literature, intertwining these references into wondrous scenes that pull us out of our drab realities.

“The paintings are tinted with emotion. It helps to communicate emotions to make something more vivid or warmer,” von Hellermann explained of her fanciful compositions’ signature color palette during a recent conversation.

Von Hellermann’s lush canvases have earned attention at exhibitions and art fairs across Europe and the U.S. over the past few years. At Frieze London, in 2023, her presentation with Pilar Corrias was a critical favorite. At this installation, and in several of her gallery shows, her work has taken on an immersive aspect, too, with her characteristic brushstroke leaping off the canvas onto the walls, carpet, or ceiling. At her solo exhibition “Monumental” at Wentrup Gallery earlier this year, she brought her gauzy visions to the walls and columns of the space, creating an almost encompassing park-like effect.

Von Hellermann, who is German but lives in the U.K., produces her impressive but playful canvases out of her main studio in the coastal town of Margate. Since 2022, she has also been working as a professor of painting at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Karlsruhe.

Her paintings may be effusive, but von Hellermann herself is startlingly dry, or perhaps shy. Unlike most artists, she does not seem to enjoy speaking about her practice and steers well clear of offering elaboration or anecdote.