Sofia Berger

Lives and works in Toronto, ON, Canada

Artist statement

Several years ago, I began experiencing a visual phenomenon whenever I was about to fall asleep; I would see images not presently fixed in real-time, in extreme detail, taking on the effect of a kaleidoscope. There wasn’t a source of gravity to orient me in such spaces. Or, maybe, my eyes became the pulling force. It was around the same time that my family moved to Canada that my vision began to wane and I began to consider how to orient myself when feelings of physical and visual instability arose. My paintings are encounters. With them, I navigate slippages, double vision, and uncertainty within unfamiliar spaces. Through them, I ask: How can touch orient us when sight falters? How does architectural memory intersect with migration? How can one validate space through touch? How does understanding a familiar language inform entry into another? Through painting, I forge atmospheres to exist within and make sense of the space around me — spaces with borders, voids, walls, patterns, and veils that ask to be touched to be made real. Consider a framing device, like a door inviting you in — wide open, but instead of a door, an ocular lens leading into my mind’s ability to digest.

Artwork