Works
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Emma Da Silva, 2023
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Masha Silchenko, 2023
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Bonnie & Minoy_deuil, 2022
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Boysan with friends, 2022
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Ines & Nino, 2022
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Inès Di Folco, 2022
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Kaan Karacehennem, 2022
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Leila Nour Johnson, 2022
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Matthias Garcia, 2022
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Vertus, 2022
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La Nave Dei Folli [The Ship of Fools], 2021
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CLAUDE, 2020
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Dina as Leda (& The Swan), 2020
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Joana & Indie, 2020
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MATTHIAS, 2020
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Bahia, 2019
Biography
Using the art of portraiture as a tool of political empowerment, Apolonia Sokol’s figurative paintings introduce portraiture and autofiction into scenes inspired by canonical works from art history and contemporary issues around feminism and queer identity. Reflecting on gendered representation throughout history and body politics, her paintings often depict her friends, lovers and collaborators as icons of radical subjectivity, bound together by alternative kinships, surrounding, protecting and elevating each other. Sokol’s paintings are characterized by her close relationships and intimacy with the models she paints, at times also inviting painter friends to work collaboratively.
Distinctive for their flat, painterly style and striking colors that the artist creates herself using natural pigments, Sokol’s paintings often present a 1:1 scale. They position the subject’s eyes in direct confrontation with the viewer’s gaze, evoking a repossession of their own identities and stories, conveying simultaneously a sense of boundary and its trangression, of strength through vulnerability. Positioned in open perspectives and unusually flat, often interior spaces, the figures seem to respond to the space of the painting with their extended, elongated and angled limbs.
Through her iconographic engagement with art historical canon and her choice of subjects such as childbirth, abortion, public demonstrations, and racialized and/or queer bodies, Sokol seeks to witness and affect the present while revealing the blindspots of Western painting and troubling male-centric histories of art and their omissions. Her painting “Le Printemps” (2020) for example, stages a group of trans and non-binary women in response to Boticelli’s painting of the same title, operating an inversion of its iconography to complexify questions around marriage, rape and pregnancy from a queer perspective. In another example, “The Cure” (2023), which borrows the form of an altarpiece, the artist depicts scenes from her studio centering on her artistic collaborators as purveyors of care and the process of painting as one of healing; while she references Villeneuve-lès-Avignon’s “Pietà” but replaces the central figure with a self-portrait, activating the history of hysteria in relation to the female body.
Apolonia Sokol (b. 1988, Paris) lives and works in Paris, France
A French figurative painter of Polish descent, Sokol graduated from the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris in 2015 and moved first to New York where she worked in Dan Colen’s studio, then to Los Angeles where she found a community of artists to exchange around figurative painting.
Her inaugural institutional solo exhibition is held at Arken Museum in 2023, preceded by “You Better Paint Me*” and “I Had Trouble Sleeping, But She Said She Loved Me…” at THE PILL (Istanbul, 2022 & 2018); “Attic”, a duo presentation with Walker Evans, Sebastien Ricou (Brussels, 2016) and “Process Is Desire”, whitcher projects (Los Angeles, 2016). Her work has been exhibited in several institutional group shows such as “Immortelle”, MO.CO Panacee (Montpellier, 2023); “Entre tes yeux et les images que j’y vois* (A Sentimental Choice)”, Fondation Pernod Ricard (Paris, 2022),“L’ami·e modèle” (Commissioned by Yvon Lambert Foundation), Viva Villa, MUCEM (Marseille, 2022); “Women Painting Women”, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth (Texas, 2022); “Women and Change”, ARKEN Museum for Modern Art (Copenhagen, 2022); “She - Classicità”, Polana Institute (Warsaw, 2021); “Conversation Piece | Part VII Towards Narragonia”, Fondazione Memmo, (Rome, 2021); “ECCO”, Villa Médicis (Rome, 2021); “Tainted Love II”, (Villa Arson, Nice, 2019) and “En Forme de Vertige”, Révélation Emerige Prize, Villa Emerige (Paris, 2017).
In 2020, Apolonia Sokol was the laureate of the prestigious Academy of France and became one of the residents of Villa Medici for 2020-2021. In 2023 the HBO produced documentary “Apolonia, Apolonia” directed by Léa Glob which follows Sokol’s life and career over a decade had a sweeping run at film festivals across the globe, including Best Feature Length documentary at IDFA, Best Documentary at Hong Kong International Film Festival and Best Nordic Documentary at Goteborg Film Festival. Sokol teaches at the Fine Arts Academy of Caen, Esam.
Exhibitions
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ISLAWIO
Apolonia Sokol 15 Oct - 21 Dec 2024 ParisISLAWIO By Didier Semin A short while ago, I was talking to a friend more or less my age (say who turned 15 in 1970) about the Kinks, a wonderful...Read more -
You Better Paint Me*
Apolonia Sokol 24 Mar - 24 Apr 2022 -
As If It Couldn't
Group Show 22 Jan - 19 Mar 2022 -
#IHadTroubleSleepingButSheSaidSheLovedMe
Apolonia Sokol 24 May - 31 Jul 2018
Press
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The Steidz
The Pill ouvre à Paris avec Apolonia SokolChirine Hammouch, November 4, 2024 -
BeauxArts
Pourquoi l’arrivée de la galerie THE PILL à Paris est une (très) bonne nouvelleMaïlys Celeux-Lanval, October 17, 2024 -
Numéro
THE PILLl: l’itinéraire d’une galerie engagée, d’Istanbul à ParisAnya Harrison, October 14, 2024 -
La Tribune Dimanche
June 23, 2024 -
Art Unlimited
Apolonia'nın PortresiMarch 22, 2024 -
The New York Times
'Apolonia, Apolonia' Review: A Whole Life in ArtJanuary 11, 2024 -
Artsy
In Portraits of Her Friends, and a New Documentary, Apolonia Sokol Turns Her Life into ArtJanuary 2, 2024 -
Vogue Poland
December 11, 2023 -
Artsy
The 10 Best Booths at Untitled Art, Miami Beach 2022December 6, 2023 -
The Art Newspaper
A documentary portrait of the artist as a young woman fighting to live and make workNovember 8, 2023 -
The Guardian
Apolonia Apolonia review- artist and film-maker evolve together in artworks memoirOctober 30, 2023 -
Anmeldelse
Apolonia Sokol er vor tids Frida KahloOctober 23, 2023 -
MutualArt
October 13, 2023 -
Politiken
Mathias Kryger: Mens jeg går rundt i den smukt iscenesatte udstilling, forelsker jeg mig simpelthenOctober 13, 2023 -
femina
APOLONIA skaber sin egen rammeOctober 1, 2023 -
The New York Times
At Future Fair, Discovering Emerging and Undersung PlayersSeptember 9, 2023 -
The New York Times
Sometimes, Making a Documentary Can Take Years (and Years and Years...)June 3, 2023 -
L'Oeil
May 1, 2023 -
Artsy
Curator's Choice: Women and Nonbinary Artists Subvert the Politics of PortraitureApril 25, 2023 -
L'Oeil
March 1, 2023 -
Documentary Association of Europe
DAE Talks With: Lea Glob & Apolonia SokolFebruary 13, 2023 -
Numéro
Utopie StamboulioteNovember 24, 2022 -
Based Istanbul
You Better Paint Me*April 25, 2022 -
Le Monde
La peintre Apolonia Sokol ouvre grand ses toiles au théâtre de l'intimitéJanuary 7, 2021 -
Numéro
Rencontre avec Apolonia Sokol: ''J'ai besoin de la peinture pour survivre''June 6, 2019 -
Based Istanbul
The Female Body is more than What's PortrayedJune 23, 2018 -
Daily Sabah
The poet's painter: Apolonia Sokol at The PillJune 9, 2018 -
Beaux-Arts
Les nouvelles tendances de la peintureFebruary 1, 2018 -
i-D
une artiste, cinq sens : apolonia sokolOctober 21, 2016 -
Vogue Italy
On Apolonia SokolFebruary 24, 2016 -
Elaine Alain
2019 -
Jeunes Critiques d’Art
Le Printemps Des Femmes -
Kunstkritikk
Girl Power for a New Century -
Art & Commitment
A Focus on the French Scene -
Le Quotidien de l'Art
THE PILL, l'express Istanbul-ParisJade Pillaudin
Texts / Portfolio
Videos
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Penser Le Présent avec Apolonia Sokol
Beaux-Arts de Paris May 24, 2024 -
Apolonia Sokol & Léa Salamé
France Inter April 1, 2024 -
Portrait Power: Danish Museum Presents First Major Apolonia Sokol Show
The Associated Press October 18, 2023 -
Apolonia Sokol & Thomas Lévy-Lasne
Les Apparences: Episode 46 June 5, 2023
Publications
News
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Painters' Day | Musée d'Orsay
August 31, 2024 Read more -
Apolonia Sokol 'The False Rose of Jericho' | O―Overgaden
March 12, 2024The False Rose of Jericho 09.03.2024 — 05.05.2024 The first collaborative exhibition by poet and performer Zahna Siham Benamor and painter Apolonia Sokol builds on...Read more