It feels like a lifetime ago that we previewed Sophie Treppendahl's new exhibition, The Nearness of You, on our Instagram; a lifetime in the fact that the fires that ravaged Los Angeles since has illuminated these works in new ways and also captured a narrative that is both intentional and environmentally unintentional. These are works of the intimacy of home, of the studio, universally familiar places that maybe aren't our own but a fantasy of something slower. Painted during her pregnancy, the New Orleans-based painter brought the works to Los Angeles and Philip Martin Gallery with the universal feeling of life reborn and now have come to represent the world we will try and get back.
“I created this body of work during my pregnancy and just after the birth of our first child, Lorenzo, who arrived in mid October,” Treppendahl writes. “The work serves as a documentation and celebration of my life at the conclusion of my childless early thirties and the very early days of life as a mother. While my work has frequently centered around interiors and scenes from my life, the desire to nest and create a warm environment intensified this year while we prepared for our son’s arrival at his first home: our little New Orleans shotgun apartment. We moved into the space with its garish purple and teal walls, and transforming it became part of my practice. Masked, three months pregnant, I painted the walls and mantles and quickly cluttered them with beloved trinkets and art, simultaneously painting snippets of it all in my studio. These months felt like a sacred ritual of preparation.”
