Sophia Schama’s abstract painting is characterized by the tension between surface and space. Although she forgoes representational motifs, her paintings create a strong three-dimensionality. Layers of color seem to overlap, shift and permeate each other. The spatiality in Sophia Schama’s paintings has not only a visual but also a tactile quality. The surface of her paintings often appears relief-like, the paint seems to detach itself from the canvas and assert its own space.

In the interplay of hard, almost technical lines and soft, organic structures, Sophia Schama uses geometric elements that look like grids, tubes or architectural fragments, but never completely merge into a recognizable function. They remain hints that combine with painterly gestures and spontaneous placements. She sets an accent against quick identification and certain labeling. Instead, the works invite the viewer to engage in an open process of seeing, in which meaning, form and space are constantly shifting.

Sophia Schama (b. 1966 in Sofia, Bulgaria) studied at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts and graduated in 2000 as a master student of Ralf Kerbach.

Sophia Schama has been a member of the Saxon Academy of Arts since 2013 and held a deputy professorship for painting at Burg Giebichenstein Kunsthochschule Halle from 2016-2018. She lives and works in Berlin.