SOLO SHOW
ALICE FOLKER GALLERY
Esplanaden 14
1263 COPENHAGEN
24 January - 21 March 2025
Installation view, DENATURE, Alice Folker Gallery, Copenhagen, 2025, photo credit: Jan Søndergaard
Payne
Polycarbonate
Polychroma
Invisible Green
Nocturne
Emerald Green
Decompose
Denature
Sophie Kitching’s exhibition DENATURE offers a panorama of her most defining painting series, in which she approaches landscape through color, material, form, abstraction and visual saturation. There is no horizon line in her works, there are no borders, and the use of a bright and dark color palette conveys the sense that the depicted nature is simultaneously close and at a distance. Through the juxtaposition of pictorial approaches, the artist explores painting as an act of transformation. Her light touch contrasts with denser compositions, reminding us that the expression of nature knows no bound. Sophie Kitching’s distinctive mark-making spanning accross various surfaces invites us to wander in her polychromatic creations, imprinting the retina in a long-lasting way.
Installation view, DENATURE, Alice Folker Gallery, Copenhagen, 2025, photo credit: Jan Søndergaard
Payne Shroud I, 2019
oil on canvas, 212 x 152 cm
Her Payne monochromes draw inspiration from a tone of grey used to depict shadows with more delicacy. Layered oil pastel soaked in turpentine are imprinted on canvas with successive folds of plastic.
Invisible Green X, 2021
oil, gouache, charcoal, crayons on canvas, 183 x 152,5 cm
Private Collection, Copenhagen
The Invisible Green series explores the melding of forms and color by time and memory. Abstracted petals of color overlap and evoke a tension between the seen and unseen.
Emerald Green III, 2024
oil on canvas, 91 x 70 cm
Visions of flora emerge from dense Emerald Green paintings. This luminous, almost supernatural green filters the landscape and contains a depth that appears three-dimensional.
Room without a view II, 2017
gouache, acrylic, ink, oil, paper on polycarbonate, two-way mirror, aluminum frame, 180 x 170 cm
The modular paintings on Polycarbonate use corrugated panel and mirror to suspend painterly gestures on a translucent ground, while the ridged surface marks the site around it with geometric awareness.
Nocturne X, 2023
oil, ink, Japanese watercolor, pastel on canvas, 183 x 152 cm
In the Nocturne paintings, leaf-like shapes rendered through quick brushstrokes, drips and patterns, elicit a sense of movement and musicality, while some parts are conceiled by shadow and night.
Recaptured Flora Ill, 2022
oil on glass, XIX* century chromolithograph, 33,5 × 26,5 cm
In Recaptured Flora, a series of chromolithographs are overlayed with painted glass, doubling the pattern of the vegetal with oil stick to enhance the subjective perception of forms and colors.
Polychroma II, 2024
oil on print, on canvas, 166 x 139 cm
In Polychroma, a photographic landscape printed in black & white is obscured by pigmented drips. The accumulation of touches blur the image into a polychromatic field filled with light.
Decompose, 2024
oil, Japanese watercolor on canvas, 200 x 160 cm
Private Collection, Copenhagen
In Decompose, floral elements of an informal garden are spread in an airy composition. The washed out venetian red base allows for the motif to expand beyond the constraint of the canvas and into a mural.
Alpine Flowers I, 2024
dried flowers and oil on canvas, 36 x 28,5 cm
Private Collection, Copenhagen
In Alpine Flowers, the canvas is coated with Pompeian Red and adorned with dried plants from the Swiss mountains. Of inorganic origin, the hue erupted s as the intense heat transformed the walls painted with yellow ochre into red ochre.
Through her paintings, Sophie Kitching aims to challenge and transform the inherent natural qualities of her surroundings. The different body of works compose the artist’s own landscape, idyllic and pastoral, natural and wild, contained and multihyphenate. Her experimentations offer an intimate overview into her conceptual approach towards landscape painting, exploring the margin between control and nature. Through this poetic exploration of her immediate environment, she creates atmospheres of both utopian otherworldliness and a grounded intimacy that the viewer can enter.
Payne Shroud (detail) I, 2018 ; Payne Shroud (detail) II, 2019
oil on canvas, mounted on wood, each: 41 x 28 cm
Polychroma II, 2024
oil on print, on canvas, 166 x 139 cm
Payne Shroud I, 2019
oil on canvas, 212 x 152 cm
photo credit: Jan Søndergaard
Nocturne VI, 2022
oil, ink, Japanese watercolor, pastel on canvas, 142 x 101 cm
Private Collection, Copenhagen
Untitled (Ring) II, 2018
ink, gouache, oil, marker, aerosol on polycarbonate, two-way mirror, aluminum frame, 105 x 75 cm
Surface to air IV, 2022
oil on two-way mirror, on polycarbonate, 82 x 58 cm
Payne Shroud II, 2020
oil on canvas, 142 x 101 cm
Payne Shroud (detail) II, 2019
oil on canvas, mounted on wood, 41 x 28 cm
Private Collection, Copenhagen
Yellow Streak, 2018
ink, gouache, aerosol on polycarbonate, 105 x 75 cm
Recaptured Flora I-lV, 2022
oil on glass, XIXth century chromolithograph, (left) each: 33,5 × 26,5 cm (right) each: 27,7 x 19,5 cm
photo credit: Jan Søndergaard
Decompose, 2024
oil, Japanese watercolor on canvas, 200 x 160 cm
Private Collection, Copenhagen
photo credit: Jan Søndergaard
Alpine Flowers I & II, 2024
dried flowers and oil on canvas, each: 36 x 28,5 cm
Private Collection, Copenhagen
photo credit: Jan Søndergaard