Sophie Treppendahl’s paintings explore, “color, homes, and the art of taking
care of yourself,” Treppendahl writes. Taking care of oneself, in her practice,
means listening to one’s own internal voices, and responding to these voices
by way of pictorial representation and the movement of paint on the canvas.
Sophie Treppendahl’s work builds a world; in this sense, it reminds us of the
pictorial strategies of early 20th-Century French Modernist masters like Henri
Matisse and Édouard Vuillard, and late 20th-Century American ones like David
Hockney and Lois Dodd.
“Through painting, I aim to capture not the likeness to an image but the
overwhelming feeling of the space or a memory. In my studio, I work from
recorded observations, often photographs and drawings, that then serve as a
springboard to explore pattern, color, light and shadow. When creating, the
representation becomes secondary, my primary focus becoming the painting
process itself. As I translate reflection, pattern, and shadows through paint, the
image lends itself to abstraction, manipulation and exaggeration. Through this,
the painting takes on new life. And instead of creating a hollow representation
of a moment that once was, I hope to create something altogether new.”
“I paint because I love the people around me and the way they make me feel.
I paint the things I want to keep,” Treppendahl notes. “The details are not the
details,” as Charles Eames once pointed out. The ways in which we build our
own individual spaces - and how Treppendahl builds her paintings - tell us
complicated and subtle things about ourselves, our interiority, that of those
around us, how we relate to each other, and to ourselves.
Sophie TREPPENDAHL (b. 1991, Baton Rouge, LA) received her BFA from
College of Charleston (Charleston, SC) in 2013. In Spring 2025, Treppendahl’s
work will be the subject of a solo exhibition at Philip Martin Gallery. In fall
2024, her work will be included in a group show at James Cohan (New York,
NY). Sophie Treppendahl’s work appeared on the front page of the New York
Times Arts Section. Sophie Treppendahl’s work has been the subject of solo
and group exhibitions at Philip Martin Gallery (Los Angeles, CA); Haverkampf
Leistenschneider (Berlin, Germany); Jack Hanley Gallery (New York, NY);
Hashimoto Contemporary (New York, NY); Johansson Projects (Oakland,
CA); Quirk Gallery (Richmond, VA); Kenise Barnes Fine Art (Larchmont, NY);
1969 Gallery (New York, NY); Carrie Secrist Gallery (Chicago, IL); Heaven
Gallery (Chicago, IL); Indianapolis Art Center (Indianapolis, IN); Ada Gallery
(Richmond, VA); Dread Lounge (Los Angeles, CA); The Broad (Richmond, CA);
How’s Howard (Boston, MA); The Southern Gallery (Charleston, SC); Gildar
Gallery (Denver, CO); and Richard and Dolly Mass Gallery (Purchase, NY).
Treppendahl has been awarded residencies with the Golden Foundation (New
Berlin, NY); 100 W Corsicana (Corsicana, TX); The Provincial (Chief, MI); and
The Wassaic Project (Wassais, NY). Her work has appeared in such publications
as the New York Times, Booooooom, White Hot Magazine of Contemporary
Art, Hyperallergic, and the Chicago Reader. Treppendahl lives and works in New
Orleans, LA.