Sophia Süßmilch: In harmony with mother nature

About

Sophia Süßmilch has decided to be a goddess. Covered in butter, rolling around on the forest floor – a goddess nonetheless. With a seriousness that rises above everything seemingly silly, the artist unites the joyful, the fantastic and the disturbed. With "Im Einklang mit Mutter Natur" (In Harmony with Mother Nature) Galerie Russi Klenner presents her first solo exhibition in Berlin.

Süßmilch allows her work to emerge from an eagerness that is almost childlike while exerting control over it in adult fashion. She paints with a keen eye for detail, casually uploads a witty clip to her Instagram. She performs without restraint and embraces a grotesque staging of the self in photographs. Her practice encapsules all of that.

Laid out amid jug-eared vases, surrounded by diffuse fog and colorful grass lies a body, distorted, eyes dead, erect nipples pointing towards the ceiling – the origin of life as sacrifice. Its limbs are worn by the various mythical creatures on the canvases. Above it, a demon-headed insect has threateningly spread its legs. It watches over beings of a species different from its own yet somehow worth protecting. They populate the walls of the gallery. In between, Süßmilch in front of mounted animals, Süßmilch on horseback, Süßmilch as the end of the rainbow. On the wall? Rosettes. Behind the felt curtain? A tube television.

It's all a bit morbid and at the same time pleasantly cozy. It’s no coincidence, that Süßmilch has arranged dried flowers and spread out carpets. Her exhibition is a place to linger. The rotting fruit doesn't compromise that. With her art, Süßmilch occupies space, exercises power, spreads joy and conveys a feeling of safeness.