Most of the paintings in this exhibition depict a world turned upside down. Four works are painted directly fromphotographs taken at aHaus Steht Kopf (Upside Down House)in Terfens, Austria. Designed primarily as a touristattraction for children and families, the site is a photo-op playground generating endless content for hungryfeeds. Three other works present scenes tightly cropped by the edges of window frames—Vienna’s city hallfrom the seat of a dentist’s chair, the façade of the old Carpenter’s Guild seen from Gogl’s child’s bedroom, theview of trees from the bathroom window. A nod to 17th-century Flemish oil paintings of windows that broke thepicture plane and called attention to the reality of their subjects and surroundings, Gogl’s paintings continue to beoccupied by the relationship between the real and the virtual.
In this show, Gogl is not as concerned with inventing new scenes through painting as much as she is concernedwith the transformation that happens when a human processes an image by hand—when the painter’s gaze driftsto the inverted, sometimes absurd, cognitive spaces in image making.
Two final paintings in the exhibition each present text; one includes a sign reading “ROCKBOTTOM,” the other“UP” written in the clouds. Taken from an episode ofSpongeBob SquarePantsin which SpongeBob’s worldinverts and the theatrical poster from the Pixar filmUPrespectively, Gogl’s renderings of these invented universesexpand the otherwise realistic boundaries of the exhibition.
Sophie Gogl (b. 1992, Kitzbühel, Austria) studied painting at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna with Prof.Judith Eisler. Solo and two-person exhibitions include Diana, Milan, Italy (2024); Soloausstellung InnsbruckBiennale, Innsbruck, Austria (2024); Neuer Kunstverein Wien, Austria (2023–2024); DOCK20, Lustenau,Austria (2023); Kunsthaus Glarus, Glarus, Switzerland (2023); Francis Irv, New York, NY (2022); KOW, Berlin(2021); The Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna, Austria (2020); and the Galerie der Stadt Schwaz, Austria(2020). Select group exhibitions include Julia Stoschek Foundation, Düsseldorf, Germany (2024); KölnischerKunstverein, Cologne, Germany (2023); Belvedere 21, Vienna, Austria (2023); Kunsthalle Friart, Fribourg,Switzerland (2022); Neuer Wiener Kunstverein Wien, Vienna, Austria (2022 & 2023); and Kunsthalle Bern, Bern,Switzerland (2020).