"The index finger and thumb touch, forming a circle reminiscent of a meditation mudra, or an emoticon that signals that all is well."

“This ability to condense different universes and situations into a coherent and harmonious image could be compared to the poetic form of haiku. Ullrich uses a series of strategies to evoke a specific moment and space, but with a beauty that escapes definitions."

Veronica Flom

Piero Atchugarry Gallery is pleased to announce The moon in daylight by Sophie Ullrich, after a month residency in Tierra Garzón a selection of works produced by the artist in that time are presented in Pueblo Garzón Gallery. The exhibition is accompanied by a beautiful text of Veronica Flom of Sophie's work and experience in Uruguay.

The time of sunset is approaching. It is January, our summer. The sun's light is streaming over the walls of the studio. Like a yellow highlighter, it dazzles the eyes. Sophie Ullrich (b. 1990 Geneva, Switzerland), who has been painting in the Tierra Garzón residence for several weeks, must take a break outdoors. The colors contrast too much. Still, changing the context, painting in the silence of the countryside, and feeling the breeze, have been attractive triggers to her.

Ullrich's paintings can condense a range of different resources. Outline-only bodies coexist in the same hierarchy with blurred abstract backgrounds and hyper-realistic consumption elements. Ullrich composes rarefied images through a balanced combination of minute details and atmospheric climates. In her works, humor is a constant that seeps into the premeditated use of childlike sketches, references to comics and arbitrary gondola-related objects. 

As in an exercise of prestidigitation, in which the fine motor skills of the hands direct a scene of magic tricks, Ullrich uses the drawing of the extremities, mainly the hands, to catalyze the narrative of the painting. In "The Gallerist", a portrait of the gallerist Piero Atchugarry, the hands simultaneously adopt an ambivalent position, solemn and friendly at the same time. The index finger and thumb touch, forming a circle reminiscent of a meditation mudra, or an emoticon that signals that all is well. This gesture enables the comedy present in the replacement of his head by a palm tree and in the personification by means of a striped shirt. With minimal elements, Ullrich manages to integrate the whole through the part.

This ability to condense different universes and situations into a coherent and harmonious image could be compared to the poetic form of haiku. Ullrich uses a series of strategies to evoke a specific moment and space, but with a beauty that escapes definitions. She deftly achieves works that appear quick and spontaneous, which nevertheless bring together layers upon layers of premeditated decisions. Nature and everyday objects intertwined. In these recent pieces, subtle and powerful impressions appear at once revealed from the encounter with the new surroundings: the presence of the moon in daylight, birds sitting for a long time on a horse, and ants dedicated to their work, always doing things. Sophie Ullrich's work achieves an organic sensation that arises from inventing her own procedure for painting illusions.

Verônica Flom (Buenos Aires, 1983)

Exhibition Catalog