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Galerie Eva Presenhuber is pleased to present Villa Venus: An Organized Dream, its first solo exhibition with the London based, Greek artist Sofia Mitsola.

In 1902, the Austrian artist Gustav Klimt painted three naked female figures and a goldfish. Despite its gorgeous meshing of sensual lines and shimmering layers of gold-inflected colour, at its unveiling, the work created a scandal. Seen from behind, the buttocks of one of the women dominates the picture; she peers out at us over her shoulder, through her blazing curtain of red hair, smiling provocatively. Klimt created the work as a riposte to his critics; originally titled To My Detractors, he changed it to Goldfish when he exhibited it in 1903.

When I visited the Greek artist Sofia Mitsola in her London studio in August, she cited Goldfish as ‘a painting that I always have at the back of my mind’ [1]. ‘It’s basically’ she said, ‘a fuck you painting. And I wanted to make a fuck you painting, too.’ Mitsola has long admired Klimt’s unabashed depiction of women’s erotic lives. She says: ‘Even now, for me to see a painting from that time of a female figure masturbating, it’s very empowering.’ However, the Austrian painter is only one of the influences Mitsola cites: during the course of our conversation she mentions sources as disparate as Japanese animation, ancient Greek and Egyptian art, the Wiener Werkstätte, antique jewellery, Edvard Munch’s nudes; Nicholas Georgiadis’s 1960s costumes; Alex Katz, a print by the 19th-century Japanese artist Utagawa Kuniyoshi, in which ‘rain feels like streams of energy’ and the Instagram account of the Lebanese American media celebrity and former porn star, Mia Khalifa. In a PDF she sent me of images that inspire her, categories include ‘coquettish bodies’, ‘half-innocent bodies’, ‘strong bodies’, ‘degenerate bodies’, ‘sexy creepy bodies’ and ‘funny bodies’.

The artist’s latest series of oil paintings – swiftly rendered in bold, bright colours that switch, in a heartbeat, from the textured to the translucent – explores both the deep past and possible futures via a cast of ‘women-like creatures’ who emit a muscular, joyful sensuality. A contemporary take on sphinxes and sirens, the intimation hovers that Mitsola’s powerful beings might either seduce or devour you, depending on their mood. Holding our eye contact, they cavort, often smiling, on the shores of an unnamed utopia, a landscape of big skies, blue seas and dry, dazzling terrain. Mitsola says: ‘I’m always thinking of the Cycladic light when I’m painting […] its blinding, almost whitish light.’

At more than two or even three metres tall, many of these new works are as monumental as they’re exuberant. Infinity Pool (all works 2023) features a tanned creature who reclines on a bed of blue water; beside her, a figure, who appears to be standing on water, recalls Kore, the free-standing, Ancient Greek sculptures of enigmatically smiling women from the Archaic period. In Bazooka, a voluptuous creature smokes, naked apart from her thighhigh boots, in a sci-fi agora of giant red balls and a red pillar. In Goldfish, titled after the Klimt, she crouches, smiling, knees wide apart, pissing into the sand. In Taka Taka Wedgie Tanga, a royal blue nightscape, the crouch becomes a dance, ‘a ritual [that is] meant to welcome but also to startle the viewer (like the sphinxes and phalluses on Delos island)’.

Mitsola has long been preoccupied with a central question: ‘How can I make fearless paintings?’ Before she begins a new work, she ‘thinks about atmosphere, about time and temperature; how heavy or light the figures are.’ She often affixes a large sheet of paper to her studio wall and ‘draws on it to feel the space I’m going to paint later on’.

When she applies paint, it’s important for her to be able ‘to move freely around’. She showed me how she approaches a canvas, her body a physical incantation from which to spin an image. Her aim is ambitious: she’s striving to create a visceral as well as a philosophical freedom; a painterly space in which shame plays no part. As a result, many of her paintings express a real delight in the possibilities of mark-making – from hard-edged boots and blazing skies, to geometric patterns and skin that appears to breathe; otherworldly eyes, shining bright.

The new body of work, which hums with a barely contained energy, is titled ‘Villa Venus: an Organized Dream’ after the name of a fantasy brothel in Vladimir Nabokov’s 1969 novel Ada or Ardor: A Family Chronicle. The book, which Mitsola loves, prompted her to ask: ‘what is bodily freedom, what is sexual freedom?’ Her paintings are, in a sense, an attempt at an answer. In her complex three-metre painting Villa Venus: An Organised Dream, a womanly creature, rendered like a sea creature in washy blues, enters a stage-like environment, greeted by eight dancing female figures, as regimented as the chorus in a Busby Berkley film, naked apart from their boots and neck ribbons. It’s an ambiguous, exultant, scenario, stilled, like all paintings, in the midst of movement. What happens next is anyone’s guess.

Jennifer Higgie

[1] All quotes from Jennifer Higgie’s studio visit to Sofia Mitsola, August 5, 2023, and follow-up notes.

 

Installation views, Sofia Mitsola, Villa Venus: An Organized Dream, Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Waldmannstrasse, Zurich, 2023

Installation views, Sofia Mitsola, Villa Venus: An Organized Dream, Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Waldmannstrasse, Zurich, 2023

Installation views, Sofia Mitsola, Villa Venus: An Organized Dream, Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Waldmannstrasse, Zurich, 2023

Installation views, Sofia Mitsola, Villa Venus: An Organized Dream, Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Waldmannstrasse, Zurich, 2023

installation view

Installation views, Sofia Mitsola, Villa Venus: An Organized Dream, Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Waldmannstrasse, Zurich, 2023

Installation views, Sofia Mitsola, Villa Venus: An Organized Dream, Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Waldmannstrasse, Zurich, 2023

Installation views, Sofia Mitsola, Villa Venus: An Organized Dream, Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Waldmannstrasse, Zurich, 2023

installation view

Installation views, Sofia Mitsola, Villa Venus: An Organized Dream, Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Waldmannstrasse, Zurich, 2023

Installation views, Sofia Mitsola, Villa Venus: An Organized Dream, Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Waldmannstrasse, Zurich, 2023

Installation views, Sofia Mitsola, Villa Venus: An Organized Dream, Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Waldmannstrasse, Zurich, 2023

Installation views, Sofia Mitsola, Villa Venus: An Organized Dream, Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Waldmannstrasse, Zurich, 2023

Installation views, Sofia Mitsola, Villa Venus: An Organized Dream, Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Waldmannstrasse, Zurich, 2023

Installation views, Sofia Mitsola, Villa Venus: An Organized Dream, Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Waldmannstrasse, Zurich, 2023

Installation views, Sofia Mitsola, Villa Venus: An Organized Dream, Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Waldmannstrasse, Zurich, 2023

installation view

Installation views, Sofia Mitsola, Villa Venus: An Organized Dream, Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Waldmannstrasse, Zurich, 2023

Installation views, Sofia Mitsola, Villa Venus: An Organized Dream, Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Waldmannstrasse, Zurich, 2023

Installation views, Sofia Mitsola, Villa Venus: An Organized Dream, Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Waldmannstrasse, Zurich, 2023

installation view

Installation views, Sofia Mitsola, Villa Venus: An Organized Dream, Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Waldmannstrasse, Zurich, 2023

Installation views, Sofia Mitsola, Villa Venus: An Organized Dream, Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Waldmannstrasse, Zurich, 2023

Installation views, Sofia Mitsola, Villa Venus: An Organized Dream, Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Waldmannstrasse, Zurich, 2023

work by sofia mitsola
SOFIA MITSOLA
Villa Venus: an Organised Dream
2023
Oil on linen
260 x 300 cm / 102 3/8 x 118 1/8 in
MITSO58953
work by sofia mitsola

SOFIA MITSOLA
Villa Venus: an Organised Dream

2023
Oil on linen
260 x 300 cm / 102 3/8 x 118 1/8 in
MITSO58953

Inquire
MITSO58680
MITSO58680
MITSO58680
MITSO58680
MITSO58680

SOFIA MITSOLA
Lasso III

2023
Oil on linen
250 x 270 cm / 98 3/8 x 106 1/4 in
MITSO58680

Inquire
MITSO58676
MITSO58680
MITSO58680
MITSO58680
MITSO58680
MITSO58676

SOFIA MITSOLA
Goldfish

2023
Oil on linen
270 x 230 cm / 106 1/4 x 90 1/2 in
MITSO58676

Inquire
MITSO58673
MITSO58673
MITSO58673
MITSO58673
MITSO58673
MITSO58673

SOFIA MITSOLA
Infinity Pool

2023
Oil on linen
230 x 260 cm / 90 1/2 x 102 3/8 in
MITSO58673

Inquire
MITSO58674
MITSO58674
MITSO58674
MITSO58674
MITSO58674
MITSO58674
MITSO58674

SOFIA MITSOLA
Cocottes Fumées

2023
Oil on linen
230 x 260 cm / 90 1/2 x 102 3/8 in
MITSO58674

Inquire
Work by Sofia Mitsola
MITSO58871
MITSO58871
MITSO58871
MITSO58871
Work by Sofia Mitsola

SOFIA MITSOLA
Sirens

2023
Oil on linen
220 x 250 cm / 86 5/8 x 98 3/8 in
MITSO58871

Inquire
MITSO58872
MITSO58872
MITSO58872
MITSO58872
MITSO58872
MITSO58872

SOFIA MITSOLA
Taka Taka, Wedgie Tanga (Ice)

2023
Oil on linen
180 x 220 cm / 70 7/8 x 86 5/8 in
MITSO58872

Inquire
work by sofia mitsola

SOFIA MITSOLA
Villa Venus: an Organised Dream

2023
Oil on linen
260 x 300 cm / 102 3/8 x 118 1/8 in
MITSO58953

MITSO58680

SOFIA MITSOLA
Lasso III

2023
Oil on linen
250 x 270 cm / 98 3/8 x 106 1/4 in
MITSO58680

MITSO58676

SOFIA MITSOLA
Goldfish

2023
Oil on linen
270 x 230 cm / 106 1/4 x 90 1/2 in
MITSO58676

MITSO58673

SOFIA MITSOLA
Infinity Pool

2023
Oil on linen
230 x 260 cm / 90 1/2 x 102 3/8 in
MITSO58673

MITSO58674

SOFIA MITSOLA
Cocottes Fumées

2023
Oil on linen
230 x 260 cm / 90 1/2 x 102 3/8 in
MITSO58674

Work by Sofia Mitsola

SOFIA MITSOLA
Sirens

2023
Oil on linen
220 x 250 cm / 86 5/8 x 98 3/8 in
MITSO58871

MITSO58872

SOFIA MITSOLA
Taka Taka, Wedgie Tanga (Ice)

2023
Oil on linen
180 x 220 cm / 70 7/8 x 86 5/8 in
MITSO58872

MITSO58683
MITSO58683
MITSO58683

SOFIA MITSOLA
Cycladesque

2023
Oil on linen
60 x 90 cm / 23 5/8 x 35 3/8 in
MITSO58683

Inquire
MITSO58874
MITSO58874
MITSO58874

SOFIA MITSOLA
Aquacrude

2023
Oil on linen
60 x 90 cm / 23 5/8 x 35 3/8 in
MITSO58874

Inquire
MITSO58875
MITSO58875
MITSO58875

SOFIA MITSOLA
Villa Venus mini

2023
Oil on linen
60 x 90 cm / 23 5/8 x 35 3/8 in
MITSO58875

Inquire
MITSO58681
MITSO58681
MITSO58681

SOFIA MITSOLA
Snow Sphinx

2023
Oil on linen
70 x 60 cm / 27 1/2 x 23 5/8 in
MITSO58681

Inquire
MITSO58678
MITSO58678
MITSO58678

SOFIA MITSOLA
Bacchanals

2023
Oil on linen
50 x 60 cm / 19 5/8 x 23 5/8 in
MITSO58678

Inquire
MITSO58679
MITSO58679
MITSO58679

SOFIA MITSOLA
Shotgun (Pelegrina)

2023
Oil on linen
50 x 60 cm / 19 5/8 x 23 5/8 in
MITSO58679

Inquire
MITSO59278
MITSO59278
MITSO59278

SOFIA MITSOLA
Mirror Light

2023
Oil on canvas
30 x 25.5 cm / 11 3/4 x 10 in
MITSO59278

Inquire
MITSO59304
MITSO59304
MITSO59304

SOFIA MITSOLA
Soft Serve

2023
Oil on linen
30 x 25 cm / 11 3/4 x 9 7/8 in
MITSO59304

Inquire
SOFIA MITSOLA
Mirror
2023
Oil on canvas
30 x 25 cm / 11 3/4 x 9 7/8 in
MITSO59279
MITSO59279
SOFIA MITSOLA
Mirror
2023
Oil on canvas
30 x 25 cm / 11 3/4 x 9 7/8 in
MITSO59279

SOFIA MITSOLA
Mirror

2023
Oil on canvas
30 x 25 cm / 11 3/4 x 9 7/8 in
MITSO59279

Inquire
MITSO58683

SOFIA MITSOLA
Cycladesque

2023
Oil on linen
60 x 90 cm / 23 5/8 x 35 3/8 in
MITSO58683

MITSO58874

SOFIA MITSOLA
Aquacrude

2023
Oil on linen
60 x 90 cm / 23 5/8 x 35 3/8 in
MITSO58874

MITSO58875

SOFIA MITSOLA
Villa Venus mini

2023
Oil on linen
60 x 90 cm / 23 5/8 x 35 3/8 in
MITSO58875

MITSO58681

SOFIA MITSOLA
Snow Sphinx

2023
Oil on linen
70 x 60 cm / 27 1/2 x 23 5/8 in
MITSO58681

MITSO58678

SOFIA MITSOLA
Bacchanals

2023
Oil on linen
50 x 60 cm / 19 5/8 x 23 5/8 in
MITSO58678

MITSO58679

SOFIA MITSOLA
Shotgun (Pelegrina)

2023
Oil on linen
50 x 60 cm / 19 5/8 x 23 5/8 in
MITSO58679

MITSO59278

SOFIA MITSOLA
Mirror Light

2023
Oil on canvas
30 x 25.5 cm / 11 3/4 x 10 in
MITSO59278

MITSO59304

SOFIA MITSOLA
Soft Serve

2023
Oil on linen
30 x 25 cm / 11 3/4 x 9 7/8 in
MITSO59304

SOFIA MITSOLA
Mirror
2023
Oil on canvas
30 x 25 cm / 11 3/4 x 9 7/8 in
MITSO59279

SOFIA MITSOLA
Mirror

2023
Oil on canvas
30 x 25 cm / 11 3/4 x 9 7/8 in
MITSO59279

MITSO59121

SOFIA MITSOLA
Siren Land

2023
Watercolour on paper
Sheet 57 x 75.5 cm / 22 1/2 x 29 3/4 in
Frame 69 x 87 x 3.5 cm / 27 1/8 x 34 1/4 x 1 3/8 in
MITSO59121

Inquire
MITSO59122

SOFIA MITSOLA
Ivory Kisses

2023
Watercolour on paper
Sheet 57 x 75.5 cm / 22 1/2 x 29 3/4 in
Frame 69 x 87 x 3.5 cm / 27 1/8 x 34 1/4 x 1 3/8 in
MITSO59122

Inquire
MITSO59123

SOFIA MITSOLA
Sirens III

2023
Watercolour on paper
Sheet 57 x 75.5 cm / 22 1/2 x 29 3/4 in
Frame 69 x 87 x 3.5 cm / 27 1/8 x 34 1/4 x 1 3/8 in
MITSO59123

Inquire
MITSO59121

SOFIA MITSOLA
Siren Land

2023
Watercolour on paper
Sheet 57 x 75.5 cm / 22 1/2 x 29 3/4 in
Frame 69 x 87 x 3.5 cm / 27 1/8 x 34 1/4 x 1 3/8 in
MITSO59121

MITSO59122

SOFIA MITSOLA
Ivory Kisses

2023
Watercolour on paper
Sheet 57 x 75.5 cm / 22 1/2 x 29 3/4 in
Frame 69 x 87 x 3.5 cm / 27 1/8 x 34 1/4 x 1 3/8 in
MITSO59122

MITSO59123

SOFIA MITSOLA
Sirens III

2023
Watercolour on paper
Sheet 57 x 75.5 cm / 22 1/2 x 29 3/4 in
Frame 69 x 87 x 3.5 cm / 27 1/8 x 34 1/4 x 1 3/8 in
MITSO59123

MITSO59115

SOFIA MITSOLA
Tonguelets

2023
Gold foil and pencil on paper
Sheet 32 x 45 cm / 12 5/8 x 17 3/4 in
Frame 45 x 57.5 x 3.5 cm / 17 3/4 x 22 5/8 x 1 3/8
MITSO59115

Inquire
MITSO59116

SOFIA MITSOLA
A Great Day

2023
Pencil on paper
Sheet 32 x 45 cm / 12 5/8 x 17 3/4 in
Frame 45 x 57.5 x 3.5 cm / 17 3/4 x 22 5/8 x 1 3/8
MITSO59116

Inquire
MITSO59117

SOFIA MITSOLA
Docile Monsteret

2023
Pencil on paper
Sheet 32 x 45 cm / 12 5/8 x 17 3/4 in
Frame 45 x 57.5 x 3.5 cm / 17 3/4 x 22 5/8 x 1 3/8
MITSO59117

Inquire
MITSO59118

SOFIA MITSOLA
Gold, Long, Lazy

2023
Pencil, gold foil on paper
Sheet 32 x 45 cm / 12 5/8 x 17 3/4 in
Frame 45 x 57.5 x 3.5 cm / 17 3/4 x 22 5/8 x 1 3/8
MITSO59118

Inquire
MITSO59119

SOFIA MITSOLA
Munchies

2023
Pencil on paper
Sheet 32 x 45 cm / 12 5/8 x 17 3/4 in
Frame 45 x 57.5 x 3.5 cm / 17 3/4 x 22 5/8 x 1 3/8
MITSO59119

Inquire
MITSO59120

SOFIA MITSOLA
Goldfish

2023
Pencil on paper
Sheet 32 x 45 cm / 12 5/8 x 17 3/4 in
Frame 45 x 57.5 x 3.5 cm / 17 3/4 x 22 5/8 x 1 3/8
MITSO59120

Inquire
MITSO59126

SOFIA MITSOLA
Sirens

2023
Pencil on paper
Sheet 32 x 45 cm / 12 5/8 x 17 3/4 in
Frame 45 x 57.5 x 3.5 cm / 17 3/4 x 22 5/8 x 1 3/8
MITSO59126

Inquire
MITSO59115

SOFIA MITSOLA
Tonguelets

2023
Gold foil and pencil on paper
Sheet 32 x 45 cm / 12 5/8 x 17 3/4 in
Frame 45 x 57.5 x 3.5 cm / 17 3/4 x 22 5/8 x 1 3/8
MITSO59115

MITSO59116

SOFIA MITSOLA
A Great Day

2023
Pencil on paper
Sheet 32 x 45 cm / 12 5/8 x 17 3/4 in
Frame 45 x 57.5 x 3.5 cm / 17 3/4 x 22 5/8 x 1 3/8
MITSO59116

MITSO59117

SOFIA MITSOLA
Docile Monsteret

2023
Pencil on paper
Sheet 32 x 45 cm / 12 5/8 x 17 3/4 in
Frame 45 x 57.5 x 3.5 cm / 17 3/4 x 22 5/8 x 1 3/8
MITSO59117

MITSO59118

SOFIA MITSOLA
Gold, Long, Lazy

2023
Pencil, gold foil on paper
Sheet 32 x 45 cm / 12 5/8 x 17 3/4 in
Frame 45 x 57.5 x 3.5 cm / 17 3/4 x 22 5/8 x 1 3/8
MITSO59118

MITSO59119

SOFIA MITSOLA
Munchies

2023
Pencil on paper
Sheet 32 x 45 cm / 12 5/8 x 17 3/4 in
Frame 45 x 57.5 x 3.5 cm / 17 3/4 x 22 5/8 x 1 3/8
MITSO59119

MITSO59120

SOFIA MITSOLA
Goldfish

2023
Pencil on paper
Sheet 32 x 45 cm / 12 5/8 x 17 3/4 in
Frame 45 x 57.5 x 3.5 cm / 17 3/4 x 22 5/8 x 1 3/8
MITSO59120

MITSO59126

SOFIA MITSOLA
Sirens

2023
Pencil on paper
Sheet 32 x 45 cm / 12 5/8 x 17 3/4 in
Frame 45 x 57.5 x 3.5 cm / 17 3/4 x 22 5/8 x 1 3/8
MITSO59126

MITSO59378

SOFIA MITSOLA
Pipette

2023
Animation; Color, Sound
Ed. 1/3 + 1 AP
5:08 min
MITSO59378

Click here to view the full video animation.

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SOFIA MITSOLA - VILLA VENUS: AN ORGANIZED DREAM - Viewing Room - Galerie Eva Presenhuber

Sofia Mitsola was born in 1992 in Thessaloniki, GR, and lives and works in London, UK. In 2018, she received her MFA in painting from the Slade School of Fine Art, UCL, UK. She has had solo exhibitions at The Portland Collection at the Harley Gallery, Welbeck, Nottinghamshire, UK (2022); Pilar Corrias, London, UK (2021; 2020; 2019); and Jerwood Space, London, UK (2019). She has participated in group exhibitions at institutions including Pilar Corrias, London, UK (2023); Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zurich, CH (2022); Jerwood Collection at the Harley Gallery, Welbeck, Nottinghamshire, UK (2021); 125 Charing Cross, London, UK (2019); Clifford Chance, London, UK (2018); Tiffany & Co, London, UK (2018); The Slade School of Fine Art, UCL, London, UK (2018); Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK (2018); Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki, GR (2017); and The Refugees Museum, Thessaloniki, GR (2016). Her work is included in the collections of institutions including the Start Museum, Shanghai, CN; X Museum, Beijing, CN; K11 Art Foundation, Hong Kong, HK; Zabludowicz Collection, London, UK; Jerwood Collection, London, UK; and UCL Art Museum Collection, London, UK.