Jan Steen, Die verkehrte Welt, 1663
Derosia is happy to present Shit Show, an exhibition of new paintings by Vienna-based artist Sophie Gogl.
Most of the paintings in this exhibition depict a world turned upside down. Four works are painted directly from photographs taken at a Haus Steht Kopf (Upside Down House) in Terfens, Austria. Designed primarily as a tourist attraction for children and families, the site is a photo-op playground generating endless content for hungry feeds. Three other works present scenes tightly cropped by the edges of window frames—Vienna’s city hall from the seat of a dentist’s chair, the façade of the old Carpenter’s Guild seen from Gogl’s child’s bedroom, and the view of trees from the bathroom window. A nod to 17th- century Flemish oil paintings of windows that broke the picture plane and called attention to the reality of their subjects and surroundings, Gogl’s paintings continue to be occupied by the relationship between the real and the virtual.
In this show, Gogl is not as concerned with inventing new scenes through painting as much as she is concerned with the transformation that happens when a human processes an image by hand—when the painter's gaze drifts to the inverted, sometimes absurd, cognitive spaces in image making.
Two final paintings in the exhibition each present text; one includes a sign reading “ROCKBOTTOM,” the other “UP” written in the clouds. Taken from an episode of SpongeBob SquarePants in which SpongeBob’s world inverts and the theatrical poster from the Pixar film UP respectively, Gogl’s renderings of these invented universes expand the otherwise realistic boundaries of the exhibition.
Sophie Gogl (b. 1992, Kitzbühel, Austria) studied painting at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna with Prof. Judith Eisler. Solo and two-person exhibitions include Diana, Milan, Italy (2024); Soloausstellung Innsbruck Biennale, Innsbruck, Austria (2024); Neuer Kunstverein Wien, Austria (2023–2024); DOCK20, Lustenau, Austria (2023); Kunsthaus Glarus, Glarus, Switzerland (2023); Francis Irv, New York, NY (2022); KOW, Berlin (2021); The Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna, Austria (2020); and the Galerie der Stadt Schwaz, Austria (2020). Select group exhibitions include Julia Stoschek Foundation, Düsseldorf, Germany (2024); Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne, Germany (2023); Belvedere 21, Vienna, Austria (2023); Kunsthalle Friart, Fribourg, Switzerland (2022); Neuer Wiener Kunstverein Wien, Vienna, Austria (2022 & 2023); and Kunsthalle Bern, Bern, Switzerland (2020).