Meeting Sophie Kitching, ENSAD Paris graduate and established artist

Graduating from the École nationale supérieure des Arts Décoratifs – Paris in 2014, Sophie Kitching now lives in New York and has her studio in the East Village, as a Project Space Studio Artist in Painting Space 122, a pioneer of the New York scene.

Tell us about your career since Atelier de Sèvres.

After a foundation year at Atelier de Sèvres, I joined the Ecole des Arts Décoratifs in Paris in 2009. I studied there for five years and graduated in 2014, in Scenography. I was also awarded a scholarship to do a six-month exchange in Fine Arts at the School of Visual Arts in New York in 2012.

Alongside my studies, I worked for other artists including Jean-Paul Goude in Paris, Amélie Chabannes in New York and Jeppe Hein in Berlin.

After Arts Déco, I returned to New York where I now live. I met Gabriel Orozco with whom I regularly work on his projects, leading me to travel to Mexico, Bali and, recently, Cuba. These meetings and projects over the years have been decisive for my artistic practice.

What do you do now?

I am an artist and I live in New York. I have my studio in the East Village, as a Project Space Studio Artist of Painting Space 122, which is a pioneering group in New York's East Village scene. (Keith Haring had one of his first exhibitions at their PS122 Gallery in the early 80s).

I also come back to Paris regularly for my exhibitions. In 2016, I was selected for the Emerige Revelations grant. In 2017, I took part in the group exhibition Appareiller - A New Generation of Artists at the Palais de Tokyo for the 250th anniversary of Arts Déco. From 2017 to 2018, I had a five-month institutional exhibition at the Maison de Chateaubriand entitled Nuits Américaines, for which a monographic catalogue was published by Lienart and then distributed in bookstores (Pompidou Centre, Louvre, Jeu de Paume, etc.). I have also exhibited in project spaces in Frankfurt (fffriedrich), New York (67), Paris (Le Huit, Cercle de la Horla) and Brussels (Grande Surface, invited by an artist met at Atelier de Sèvres, Inès Domange Haym), which have led me to embark on projects with young artists and curators.

What projects are you working on?

I am currently preparing my next solo show at Galerie Isabelle Gounod, in Paris, which opens on 25th April and will be on show until 25th May. I'm working on new polycarbonate paintings and an installation in situ... Everything is still in the early stages!

I am also participating in a charity project with Emily Marant for the Merci boutique in Paris. Tuki, my Russian doll piñata, is on show as part of their exhibition, Misaotra, on show until 26th March. The funds raised during the auction of the designers’ dolls exhibited will be donated to support the isolated populations of Madagascar through the Merci Fond de Dotation (endowment fund).

My new video Parades (2019) will be on show from April at the group exhibition Eco Shifters at the Fondazione La Fabbrica del Cioccolato in Torre in Switzerland and, finally, in New York I am actively preparing my Open Studio to be held at PS112 the weekend of 4th to 5th May during Frieze New York.

Discover Sophie Kitching's work on www.sophiekitching.com and on Instagram: @sophie.kitching