De wereld van Sofie [“Sofie’s World”] is a group exhibition of works by Ilse D’Hollander, Leon Vranken, Tatjana Gerhard and Stef Driesen. The exhibition is curated by Belgian gallery owners Sofie Van de Velde and Jason Poirier dit Caulier of Gallery Sofie Van de Velde and PLUS-ONE Gallery, both based in Antwerp. The exhibition De wereld van Sofie takes place at the same time as the solo exhibition Inner Garden by Filip Vervaet from May 12 to June 12, 2022.

Sofie’s World is titled after the book by Jostein Gaarder and presents an overview of painting by four artists working in different media and using different approaches. Leon Vranken, for example, is a sculptor and in situ artist who deconstruct the medium of painting and shows what a painting consists of. Stef Driesen makes use of photography to transform images of the body into something purely sensual. They take on an earthy and smoky glow that make you want to get hold of it.

All artists in the exhibition bend reality. They base their work on real life experiences but transform them into more abstract and intuitive ones. Tatjana Gerhard explores the representation of the human figure, which she transforms into flat realities. Ilse D’Hollander reduces the natural landscape to an impression of forms and colors. The resulting image is left open to interpretation and especially to feeling.