With a strong connection with the moon and nighttime, and inspired by David Bowie’s Moonage Daydream, artist Sophie von Hellermann presents her fourth solo show at London’s Pilar Corrias gallery. On view through March 22nd, Moonage is populated by imaginary creatures that get together to perform rituals under the moonlight, imaginary plants that grow uncontrollably, or rockets that take you to outer space. After opening the show a few days ago, we sit down with Sophie to discuss trial and error in her creative process, favourite Bowie songs, drama, and her upcoming 50th birthday.
Hi Sophie, it’s a pleasure to speak with you. You’ve recently opened a solo show at Pilar Corrias. How do you live the days prior to an opening?
Ahead of an opening, my mind is so preoccupied that I tend to miss the crucial information to navigate the day — I was nearly run over yesterday because I was thinking through a detail about the installation!
Just a few days ago, we welcomed the first full moon of the year! Did you do anything special about it?
I made a painting featuring the moon and my dog. A full moon is always a special moment, and given the exhibition, I’ve been more acute to it than usual.
Speaking of that, are you a ritualistic person?
I have my routines, but this is distinct from being ritualistic. In a way, I’m unprecious about things — I’m not so much in control of the objects around me. There’s always a little bit of chaos and that doesn’t bother me. I let everything fall into its place so that I can get on with the work there is to do — rituals take too much time. That being said, I enjoy observing people when they honour or mark a moment together. A group of women dancing under a full moon is so human.
Gemini Sailor, 2024 © Sophie von Hellermann. Courtesy the artist and Pilar Corrias, London.
You present Moonage, your fourth solo show at Pilar Corrias gallery. You take the title from a David Bowie song, Moonage Daydream, where he introduces the infamous Ziggy Stardust. What about the singer and his alter ego speak to you and your art?
I always saw him as a warrior for art and the unknown and the power of creativity.
As a curiosity, and since January is his birth (and passing) month, what are other favourite songs of his? And were you playing them when working on the exhibit?
I listened to The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars a lot whilst making the works for this show. One of the paintings, Press Your Space Face Close to Mine, also borrows its title from the lyrics of the song Moonage Daydream: “Keep your ‘lectric eye on me babe / Put your ray to my head / Press your space face close to mine, love / Freak out in a moonage daydream, oh yeah!”
I’d like to delve into your creative process. What does a ‘normal’ day look like in your studio?
I arrive around 9.30/10 am after a full morning walking the dog or exercising on the beach, and start by reflecting on what happened the day before. It’s nice if I have some empty canvases as it means I can start painting straight away, otherwise I have to stretch up a number of new ones, which I always do myself. On a good day, I might make one painting before lunch, and then another afterwards. Sometimes I forgo lunch and I push myself to keep working, or I stare for a long time at the paintings.
The daylight dictates how much time I spend working in the studio; the days are quite short at the moment so I have to be efficient. The way in which I work demands so much of my energy and spirit; I often come away from a day in the studio absolutely spent and in a haze!
The daylight dictates how much time I spend working in the studio; the days are quite short at the moment so I have to be efficient. The way in which I work demands so much of my energy and spirit; I often come away from a day in the studio absolutely spent and in a haze!
“I enjoy observing people when they honour or mark a moment together. A group of women dancing under a full moon is so human.”
Your brushstrokes are so visible, they make the artworks even more personal. They feel vivid, dynamic. Is there a lot of trial and error, or it’s more about what you’re feeling in the moment?
It’s both. Every painting is like an adventure. Rather than self correcting or editing, I react and respond to the mistake. Rather than overpainting it or throwing the painting away, that very mistake becomes the cue for the next brushstroke. In the moment of painting, I make a thousand calculated decisions whilst feeling like I am being swept away by the wave of water and pigments.
For the exhibit, you’ve also transformed the gallery space: it’s be dimly lit, there’s a curtain and a mural… Could you please guide us through this takeover, and how do you think this mysterious atmosphere contributes to the overall feeling of the artworks?
A mural is always a very direct way to change the space and to pick up on something in the air at that moment, what is playing on people’s minds. The word I would use is ‘dramatic’ rather than ‘mysterious’. The curtain was a very important element to underscore this sense of drama. It is both an invitation and an ending. To paraphrase Adorno, every artwork has to be a promise.
Imagination plays such an important role in your work; I assume you don’t draw as much from reality as you do from imagined scenes and characters. Is that so?
Living is dreaming! I’m drawing all the time. Drawing from reality is gathering information for me to realise ideas — it’s simply practical.
Press Your Space Face Close to Mine, 2025 © Sophie von Hellermann. Courtesy the artist and Pilar Corrias, London.
A show where the moonlight is so important, there is a sense of mysticism. We know that the things that happen at night don’t tend to happen in broad daylight. Are you a night person? What about it attracts you, both personally and artistically?
I love music and dancing, and used to be a DJ. Otherwise, I’m only a night person in the sense that I don’t sleep much and lie awake a lot. Artistically, nighttime is interesting in that edges dissolve and colours will disappear at different rates. I do love painting the night’s sky — even in the darkest night there will be some luminosity. It contains all the pigments.
You were inspired by Bowie’s Moonage Daydream, but there are many other works of art that happen at night — Scorsese’s After Hours or Dostoevsky’s White Nights come to mind. Any other films, songs, books, etc. happening after dark that you really love and would like to recommend?
I love both After Hours and White Nights. I also recently read The Incommensurables, a great book by Raphaela Edelbauer that’s set one night in Vienna just before the First World War. Another favourite is Celine’s Journey to the End of the Night. The female horse races through the darkness, and we as the dreamer are trying to hold on. And Midsummer Night’s Dream of course! I made an exhibition around that play for Pilar Corrias during lockdown.
As said before, this is your fourth show with the gallery. It must be reinforcing to see that a gallery trusts your work and vision. What is your relationship with them like?
I feel very supported by them. Pilar Corrias has created a space for art like no other and I am very proud to be represented by her and her great team.
“Artistically, nighttime is interesting in that edges dissolve and colours will disappear at different rates. I do love painting the night’s sky.”
You were born and raised in Munich, Germany, but moved to London to finish an MFA at the Royal College of Art. And now you live there. What about the UK, or London in particular, attracted you in the first place? And what made you stay?
I was born in Munich, but then moved to Essen and then to Oxfordshire, where I went to the European school because my father was working at Joint European Torus, a project in nuclear fusion. I then went back to North Rhine Westphalia to study at the Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf. But all throughout that time, when I was home in England during the summer, I would go to London as much as possible because that’s where it was at! Record shops, clubs, shops, galleries, the East End. So I was very happy to receive a DAAD scholarship from the German government, enabling me to study at the Royal College of Art, where I also met my partner, Jonathan Viner.
When I was pregnant with my first child, we bought a house in Dalston where we still live, but my studio and archive are in Margate, where Jonathan developed an old print works where I painted for many years and where the children really grew up. Since we moved there, lots of other artists and galleries have followed. I now spend quite a lot of time back in Germany, in Berlin, where my parents now are, and in Karlsruhe, where since 2022 I have a professorship in painting.
When I was pregnant with my first child, we bought a house in Dalston where we still live, but my studio and archive are in Margate, where Jonathan developed an old print works where I painted for many years and where the children really grew up. Since we moved there, lots of other artists and galleries have followed. I now spend quite a lot of time back in Germany, in Berlin, where my parents now are, and in Karlsruhe, where since 2022 I have a professorship in painting.
To finish, what are your goals or plans for 2025 now that we’re starting it?
After Moonage opens, I will go straight back to the studio in Margate to finish the works for a big solo show at Space K in Seoul, Korea. Titled Party of Life, it will present a series of paintings on the theme of Dano, a Korean Spring festival. I am painting masked dancers, wrestlers, cock fights, archery, women on swings, and swirling ribbons. I will paint a huge mural in the museum as well. I will be turning fifty whilst I am there, so the theme and the show is also a celebration of that.
