Sophie von Hellermann

Sophie von Hellermann (b. 1975, Munich, Germany) lives and works in London and Kent, UK. She studied at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf and the Royal College of Art, London.

Sophie von Hellermann’s paintings recall the look of fables, legends and traditional stories that are imbued with the workings of her subconscious rather than the content of existing images. Her romantic, pastel-washed canvases are often installed to suggest complex narrative threads. Von Hellermann applies pure pigment directly onto unprimed canvas, her use of broad-brush washes instills a sense of weightlessness to her pictures. The artist’s paintings are drawn upon current affairs as often and as fluidly as they borrow from the imagery of classical mythology and literature to create expansive imaginary places. In subject matter and style, von Hellermann tests imagination against reality.

Recent solo exhibitions have been held at Greene Naftali in New York, Heijnen Gallery in Los Angeles, Kunstverein Hannover and Vilma Gold in London, and her works are held in the collections of Los Angeles Country Museum of Art and The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.