Sophie Reinhold: Das Kann Das Leben Kosten: Cat. Cfa Contemporary Fine Arts Berlin

Absence is a recurring theme in Sopie Reinhold’s work: the left out, unsaid, uninvited. Basic rules of abstraction. To not give it all away. This constraint sets the tone, her underlying mood. Maybe it’s a pattern. It creates a place apart from language. A very clear silence. When there are many motifs, the sense of a pattern is easily lost. Disorder stretches out. Distance helps to make sense of the overview again. Discerning the motif’s repetition–affirming the pattern–satisfies some obsessive impulse and fosters a spirit of serenity… Sophie Reinhold’s paintings consistently demonstrate her astute understanding that her reality cannot be smoothed over, that the experience takes place long before it’s manipulated into form. Her art emerges from a kaleidoscopic multiplicity; not following a formula, always multifaceted. One aspect of the method is salient: the decision to sand a painting, to remove and apply images, reflects an experience of reality tantamount to the wear and tear of everyday life… The show in spring was the first to open in Berlin after restrictions due to the Covid-19 pandemic were relaxed.