Sophia Süssmilch: Ist das Kunst oder Verachtung

Radical and tender, merciless, but in the most sensitive, nuanced way. Brutally physical, naked and bare, loud and quiet, expressive, political and humorous, the artist Sophia Süssmilch positions herself. Whether in performances with often several actors, her stage shows at the Volksbühne Berlin or in her colorful, detailed paintings – the shreds always fly. Most recently, her solo exhibition at the Kunsthalle Osnabrück provoked protests from local politicians who wanted to recognize a call for cannibalism and the endangerment of children. In fact, the exhibition addresses motherhood and morality, eating and being eaten and meat – human and animal – as the battlefield of our social interaction.

“Ist das Kunst oder Verachtung (Is this art or contempt)”- the title of the upcoming exhibition at ASPN refers to a social media comment that Süssmilch received in the wake of the shitstorm and widespread media coverage of the Osnabrück exhibition.

It shows new paintings, large-scale tableaux and background miniatures in oil on canvas. Completely new and on display for the first time is a series of drawings in which creatures, monsters, animals and people can be seen trying to cope with the chaos of life. Laughing out loud, the dervishes of all genders dance and celebrate their excessive demands. It won’t be long before the rind cracks.

 

Sophia Süssmilch, born in Munich in 1983, studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna under Ashley Hans Scheirl and as a master student of Stephan Huber at the Academy of Fine Arts Munich. In 2024 she received the scholarship by Kunstfonds, Bonn, in 2022 the Marianne Defet scholarship in Nuremberg and in 2020 the Förderpreis für Bildende Kunst der Landeshauptstadt München. She has had extensive solo exhibitions at the Kunsthalle Osnabrück in 2024, the Francisco Carolinum, Linz, AT and the Kunsthalle G2, Leipzig in 2023. Her works are represented in numerous public and private collections.