Sophie Westerlind
Sophie Westerlind's paintings offer a profound exploration of the complexities of the human body and its many stages of life. Her work focuses on the recurring themes of the female form, body language, and the ways in which we use movement to express ourselves. Through her art, Westerlind seeks to delve deep into the nuances of how we inhabit our bodies, and how we communicate with others through physicality. She uses loose, bold, and dynamic brush strokes, which create a sense of movement in her paintings, capturing the intensity of the human experience. The fast way of working, the fluidity and spontaneity in how she uses only one brush mark to create a shape, gives her paintings a sense of immediacy and vitality.
Westerlind’s works are deeply personal. She portrays friends and family members directly from life or from photographs. She imbues each subject with dignity and respect, capturing their unique spirit and tenderness of personality with an unwavering gaze. Her use of color and light creates depth and texture that draws the viewer in and transmits intimacy between the subject and the audience. As she grapples with the complexities of human relationships, she grants the viewer access to her own emotional world. Her work is as much about the act of painting, as it is about the act of observing and capturing fleeting emotional states of her own, of the sitter and the relation between them.
With a sense of warmth and familiarity, her paintings of interior spaces encapsulate the essence of domesticity, as they tell stories about the people who inhabit those rooms. “Perhaps interiors are the most successful portraits because they reveal so much about the individuals who occupy them, their thoughts, feelings, and unique personalities,” she says. Westerlind examines her identity and own emotional state which requires a level of vulnerability and honesty, as the artist exposes her inner self to the viewer. She initiates a painterly and conceptual conversation that explores the complex duality between the subject and the artist. This dynamic interplay is captured through the tension between self-possession and self-scrutiny, inviting the viewer to reflect on the inherent paradox of artistic expression.
Based in Paris, France
Education
2018 MA Fine Art, Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia, Venice
2013 MA Visual Communication, Royal College of Art, London
2011 BA Graphic Design and Illustration, Central Saint Martins’
College of Art and Design, London
Selected Exhibitions
2024 Renata Fabbri, Il mio telaio, la tua Laura, Milan
2023 Swedish Institute in Rome, She affects us, indeed, Rome
2023 Galerie Norbert Arns, You danced on the carpet and waited for her, Cologne
2022 Casa Testori and Teatro deSidera, Pensa a Knut, Milan
2022 Spazio NEUTRO, Yes, I used to be a great dancer, Reggio Emilia
2019 Museo Diocesano di Belluno-Feltre, L’ultima cena, Sophie
Westerlind su Tintoretto, Feltre
Group Exhibitions
2024 Art Paris, Grand Palais Éphémère, 26th EditIion, with Galerie Ariane C-Y, Paris
2024 Liljevalchs, Vårsalongen, Stockholm
2023 Monitor Gallery, Venice Time Case, Rome
2022 Galerie Ariane C-Y, Orbe, Paris
2022 Galerie Italienne Venice Time Case, Group Exhibition, Paris
2021 Tomaso Calabro Galleria d’Arte Venice Time Case, Group Exhibition, Milan
2021 Museo Giovanni Fattori, Combat Prize 12th edition, Livorno
2021 Center of Recent Drawing, Dialogues 01, London
2021 Artcurial, Lidocontemporaneo, Milan
2021 Società Umanitaria, Praevenus, Milan
2019 Adams Ave Art Walk, San Diego, CA
2019 Gustav III’s Museum of Antiquities, Den Tänkande Handen, Stockholm
2018 Gandy Gallery, Migration of Energies, Bratislava
Residencies and Workshops
2021 Lido Contemporaneo, Fano
2020 Fincantieri S.p.A., In-Edita, Venice
2019 Dolomiti Contemporanee, Borca di Cadore
2013 London Zoo and Royal College of Art, Zootopia, London
2013 BIOMAB, The University Hospital of Ghent and Antwerp, Royal College of Art, Ghent and Antwerp
2012 Camden Arts Center, Drawing during Helle Bjarregaard’s
performance, London
2012 Complicite, Drawing during actors’ workshop in preparation for the play Lion Boy, London
Selected Press and Publications
2024 Liljevalchs Vårsalong, exhibition catalogue, ed. by Liljevalchs, Stockholm
2024 BeauxArts, Que voir à la foire Art Paris au Grand Palais éphémère ? 8 stands qui valent le détour, ed. by Inès Boittiaux
2023 L’Altra Individualità, la pittura figurativa in Italia oggi, ed. by
Domenico Russo, Silvana Editoriale, Milan
2022 Il fascino indiscreto del ritratto: Sophie Westerlind al Teatro Oscar di Milano ed. by Red
2022 Exibart, Sophie Westerlind, Yes I used to be a great dancer – NEUTRO ed. by Ilaria Zampieri
2021 C – Print, Meeting Sophie Westerlind, ed. by Eleonora Savorelli
2021 Westerlind, publication for the exhibition Yes I used to be a great dancer, ed.by NEUTRO
2021 Venice Time Case, exhibition catalogue ed. by Luca Massimo Barbero, Marsilio Editori. Venice
2021 Fortuna instabile quasi possibile, exhibition catalogue, ed. by Lido Contemporaneo, Fano
2018 Migration of Energies, exhibition catalogue ed. by Gandy Gallery, Bratislava