Philip Martin Gallery is proud to present, “Dinner by Candlelight,” its second solo exhibition of new jewel-sized domestic interior paintings by New Orleans-based painter Sophie Treppendahl.
Sophie Treppendahl's paintings examine the intimate and evocative possibilities inherent in depictions of domestic interiors. As their motif, Sophie Treppendahl's works explore the interior of her New Orleans home. With an eye to seriality, Treppendahl focuses on the mantle, with its French 19th-century styling; the wall behind it; and the dining table, the surface of which is scattered with objects as they might be found the morning after a dinner-party. Treppendahl's images present the daily rhythm of a 21st-century young family, with their books and plates, cups and glasses, toys and coffee pots, as well as their relations - with themselves, with each other and with visitors - evoking perhaps the works of other artists with New Orleans connections like Edgar Degas, who painted his relatives during his famous sojourn in the city between 1872-73.
A hallmark of Sophie Treppendahl's work is the particular way in which she adapts various tools of abstraction to inform representational painting's function. Treppendahl utilizes Post-War pictorial methods such as flat-bed and all-over composition to make interior space in some sense non-objective, moving the eye of the viewer through a push-pull tapestry of shape, line, texture and especially color. The resulting rhythms are entirely Treppendahl's own both with regard to our current way of looking and also with regard to those of times past as we have come to know them through the rich history of painting and art-making.
“Through painting, I aim to capture not the likeness to an image but the overwhelming feeling of the space or a memory," Sophie Treppendahl writes. "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."
Sophie Treppendahl (b. 1991, Baton Rouge, LA) received her BFA from College of Charleston (Charleston, SC) in 2013. Treppendahl's work was featured in The New York Times front-page Arts Section. Recent and upcoming solo and group exhibitions include Philip Martin Gallery (Los Angeles, CA); James Cohan (New York, NY); 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 been reviewed in publications such as Booooooom, White Hot Magazine of Contemporary Art, Hyperallergic, and Chicago Reader. Treppendahl lives and works in New Orleans, LA.
Sophie Treppendahl's exhibition, "Dinner by Candlelight," is online June 25 - July 9, 2026. Philip Martin Gallery is open Wednesday-Saturday 11-5 and Tuesdays by appointment. The gallery is located at 3342 Verdugo Road, Los Angeles CA 90065. For additional images and information please call 323-507-2037 or email info@philipmartingallery.com.
