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.

Nicole Hackert and Bruno Brunnet (the founder of the gallery in 1992) are a permanent part of the international gallery world with CFA situated now at Grolmanstraße in Berlin-Charlottenburg. Their work is an inherent part of the beginning of the artistic careers of Cecily Brown, Peter Doig, Sarah Lucas, Jonathan Meese, Raymond Pettibon, TAL R, Daniel Richter, Christian Rosa, Dana Schutz, Norbert Schwontkowski, Katja Strunz, Juergen Teller, or Marianne Vitale, just to name a few. Tenzing Barshee (born 1983 in Basel) works as an independent writer and curator; he lives in Berlin. In 2016, he curated a two person show with Anne Speier and Judy Fiskin at wellwellwell, Applied Arts University Vienna, Le Mérite, 2014 to 2016 at Treize in Paris, and co-curated Passo Dopo Passo with Molly Everett and Dorota Michalska for Fondazione Sandretto Ré Rebaudengo in Turino, An Answer to ‘Sculptures,’ a solo show by Margaret Honda, with Fanny Gonella at Künstlerhaus Bremen, and Rochelle Feinstein: In Anticipation for Women’s History Month with Fabrice Stroun. Hannes Schmidt (born 1974) is an German artist and curator who lives in Berlin.