We are pleased to share that Sophie von Hellermann's solo exhibition Festival is now on view at Space K, Seoul until 6 July 2025.
Von Hellermann constructs her paintings from a vast collection of narratives spanning mythology, history, and literature. Her pastel-colored paintings, rendered with soft, loose brushstrokes that blur the lines between subject and background, evoke a sense of lyricism while also conveying a powerful expressionistic emotion. Sophie von Hellermann’s first solo exhibition in Korea showcases over twenty new paintings and a large-scale mural inspired by festivals, including the Korean holiday of Dano.
Stretching across canvases and museum walls, von Hellermann’s work uses her imagination to expand the meaning of “festival” by exploring truth and fiction, ritual and play, Eastern and Western thoughts. Korean festivals have traditionally marked the cycle of nature, celebrating the beginning of a new year and beseeching prosperity for a good harvest. They also provide a place for freedom and unity, helping people overcome life’s relentless uncertainties and hardships. The ephemeral nature of the artist’s mural, destined for erasure after the exhibition comes to an end, prompts us to consider that human birth and death are similarly festivals that emerge and fade with time.
