Artist interview: Sophia Hewson

Sophia Hewson is a Melbourne based artist who makes the most incredibly beautiful, unsettling and emotive paintings with a deep theatrical feel. After graduating from The Victorian College of the Arts in 2007 was signed to Lindberg Contemporary Gallery in Melbourne which is where she recently opened her first major solo exhibition entitled ‘Solstice-City of the godless’.

We fired some questions her way to find out more about the 24 year old behind these highly accomplished works of art.

Goodnight Atlanta

How do you feel you’ve developed since you first started doing what you do?

There are so many changes, both visual and in the thinking. I first tried realism when I was 22 with ‘Simone’, its was about technique for me, a kind of alchemy. Now is only 2 years later but I don’t think about technique anymore, I think about the places that the paintings reveal… a dark romance, or an erotic mourning, and this is much more important to me.

Your paintings work so well because of what they leave out – do you have a clear narrative for each image?

I hope art has a different structure to… to there being a single inflexible narrative; it is multi faceted like a question that splays out in all directions.

What’s your favourite colour?

Pink and black

Which artist is inspiring you the most right now?

In Australia Mia Salsjo, the installation artist, she also composed the string quartet for the show, and internationally Matthew Barney.

Your close friends feature in a lot of your work, but they’re shown in a very distanced manner…

They are distant because they aren’t playing themselves. Well it’s a blend of themselves and the character in the painting.

You’ve just opened your first major exhibition. What’s next?

It feels incredible, I worked for two years towards this show. But I’m focusing on the next body of work now, I’m moving studios, branching into new mediums, and I’m excited to see the work continue to evolve and develop.