Sophie Westerlind

Sophie Westerlind (Stockholm, 1985)’s artistic research focuses on the exploration of body language and human relationships. Created from real-life posing sessions or inspired by photographs, her oil paintings reflect the sensitivity the artist dedicates to people, their ways of expressing themselves, relating to others, and inhabiting places. They range from depicting human figures caught in moments of ordinary life to suggesting stark yet dense with personal experience environments.

In particular, the genre of portraiture allows Westerlind to delve into the depths of human relationships through the rendering of details that reveal the inner lives of the subjects depicted and simultaneously hint at the intimacy the artist has established with them. These individuals are friends, family members, or acquaintances who, for various reasons, cross paths with Westerlind and become her close interlocutors in a completely spontaneous and intuitive manner. Through an empathetic language, the artist conveys the tenderness perceived in their faces, expressions, gestures, and attitudes, transforming the painting activity into an intimate reflection of shared emotions and experiences.

This sensitivity is emphasised by a strongly textural expressive style, in which the brushstrokes, intense and rich with impasto, layer and blend on the pictorial surface. The swift stroke, fluidity, and spontaneity of the mark give her paintings a sense of immediacy and vitality that recalls the dynamism of human emotions and relationships. The vibrant use of light and colour, as well as the attention to bodily expressiveness, draw from the influence of the great Renaissance masters, such as Titian and Tintoretto, from whom Westerlind has drawn inspiration since her arrival in Venice.

If, on the one hand, Westerlind’s paintings stage an intense and close confrontation with the subjects portrayed in an attempt to grasp the emotions encapsulated within their bodies, on the other, they manifest the urgent search for a “physical engagement”with painting and its matter. This profound interaction with the pictorial medium translates into dense and substantial works, in which color appears to “exceed” the surface, imparting “corporeality” to feelings and fleeting moments.

Sophie Westerlind studied in London, where she graduated from Central Saint Martins (2011) and the Royal College of Art (2013). Her strong interest in anatomy and the Venetian Renaissance led her to Venice, where she earned her degree from the Academy of Fine Arts (2018).

In 2019, she was awarded a national grant for her drawings inspired by Tintoretto by the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm. She has recently completed a residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris.

Recent solo and group exhibitions include: Spring Salon, Liljevalchs Konsthall, Stockholm (2024); She affects us, indeed, Swedish Institute, Rome (2023); You danced on the carpet and waited for her, Galerie Norbert Arns, Cologne (2023); Venice Time Case, Monitor Gallery, Rome (2023); Orbe, Galerie Ariane C-Y, Paris (2022); Think of Knut!, Casa Testori and Teatro deSidera, Milan (2022); Yes, I used to be a great dancer, Spazio NEUTRO, Reggio Emilia (2022); Venice Time Case, Galleria Tomaso Calabro, Milan (2021); Premio Combat, Livorno (2021); Dialogues 01, Center for Recent Drawing, London, UK (2021).