SOPHIE KO
°1981,Tbilisi (Georgia)
Lives and works in Milan (IT)
Sophie Ko (Tbilisi, 1981) lives and works in Milan. At the heart of her artistic practice lies the concept of time, which is explored in its intense symbolic interaction with the materials she employs – mostly ashes of burnt images and pure pigments – and the images created. The change and instability of materials in relation to the flow of time are some of the constants of her artistic research. The Temporal Geographies, for example, provide an exemplification of a series of works eternally suspended between the act of creation and that of destruction, where the image is constantly subjected to a continuous process of modification through the slow and relentless collapse of the material of which it is made. Conceived through a conceptual and formal negotiation between sculpture and painting, these works stage “a bond made of weight, pressure, gravity, and the destruction of time on images, but also of formation, depth, return, and rebirth with respect to the passage of time.” Meaningful metaphors of the caducity and mutability of existence, her works recall the trajectory of life that we trace, parallel to a slow but persistent collapsing movement.
Recent solo shows include: Italian Cultural Institute, London (2024); Estorick collection of Italian modern art, London (2024); Renata Fabbri, Milan (2015, 2018 and 2023); Contemporary Locus, Bergamo (2023); Postmasters Rome, with Marta Kucsora (2023); Museo Marino Marini, Florence (2022); EAST Galerie, Strasbourg (2022); Galleria de’ Foscherari, Bologna (2016 and 2021–22); BUILDINGBOX, Milan (2021); BUILDING Gallery, Milan (2020); Ca’Pesaro – International Gallery of Modern Art, Venice (2019); The OpenBox, Milan (2018). She has participated in group exhibitions at Saudi Arabian Museum of Contemporary Art (SAMoCA), Riyadh Saudi Arabia (2024); Premio di Grafica Santa Croce, Santa Croce sull’Arno, Pisa; Studio la Città, Verona; Societé Interludio, Turin; Circolo, Milan; Villa Croce Museo d’arte Contemporanea, Genova (2023); Palazzo Ducale, Gubbio (2022); Fondazione Malvina Menegaz, Castelbasso (2021); Palazzo Barbò Torre Pallavicina, Bologna (2021); MAC – Contemporary Art Museum, Lissone (2021); and Renata Fabbri, Milan (2020), among others. In 2016, Sophie Ko won the Lissone Prize for Painting organized by MAC – Contemporary Art Museum, Lissone.
EDUCATION
2012 MFA Brera Academy, Milan
2004 BA Academy of Fine Arts, Tbilisi
AWARDS
19° il Premio Cairo, curated by Redazione di Arte, mensile dell’Editoriale Giorgio Mondadori Cairo-Editore, Palazzo Reale, Milan, 16-21 October, 2018
Finalist by Academy Now, London, 2017
First prize winner Gran Premio della Pittura, curated by Alberto Zanchetta, MAC-Contemporary Art Museum, Lissone, 2016
Shortlisted Premio Francesco Fabbri per le Arti Contemporanee, Pieve di Soligo, 2015
Residences and Special Projects
TAD Residency 2023: Silvia Battaglio, Sophie Ko, Amina Amici. Monastero del Carmine, curated by Contemporary Locus, TTB, FDE Festival Danza Estate. Bergamo 2023.
BARCO – Residenza artistica, curated by Elisa Mossa and Lorenzo Kamerlengo, Urbania, 2022
Giornata di studio. Spazi, sguardi,incontri. Il museo come luogo di inclusione sociale, curated by Analisa Furia and Donatella Biagi Maino, Università di Bologna, Dipartimento di beni culturali, Ravenna, 2018
Residenza Made in Filandia, Pergine Valdarno, 2017
Residenza Progetto Borca – Dolomiti Contemporanee, curated by Gianluca D’Incà Levis, 2016
Residenza Carloforte, Italy, 2015
Internship Program of the European Commission Giovani per l’Interculturalità at Progetto Giovani, Padua, 2005-2006
Scholarship of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs at Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera, Milan, 2003
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
course, Galerie East featuring Sophie Ko, at EYES ONLY, Munich, 2025
Sophie Ko- Luca Pozzi, Arte nel paesaggio. Time Gravity 2025, curated by Giada Rodani and Jade Vlietstra, at the San Michele Arcangelo Dome in Semifonte and at the Osservatorio Astronomico Chianti, 2025
Sophie Ko. Chiaro di Luna, curated by Michela Eremita, Raggio verde 2025, Accademia dei Fisiocritici, Siena, 2025
E’ talmente anima, che non è anima, Sophie Ko, text by Maurizio Guerri, EAST Galerie, Strasbourg, 2025
MEHR LICHT. Sophie Ko/Gianni Pellegrini, curated by Gabriele Salvaterra, SPAZIO KN, Rovereto, 2024
Sophie Ko: Geografia Temporale, curated by Elena Re, at Istituto Italiano di Cultura di Londra, London, 2024
INTERVENTION Sophie Ko: Temporal Geography , at Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art, London, 2024
Prima che la notte cada, text by Riccardo Venturi, Renata Fabbri, Milan, 2023
Ai Vinti, Contemporary Locus 15, curated by Paola Tognon, Parco Caprotti e Padiglione del Tè, Bergamo, 2023
Sophie Ko/ Marta Kucsora. Questo Caos Del Tempo, curated by Melania Rossi and Paulina Bebecka, PostmastersROMA, Rome, 2023
Flashbacks-14. Sophie Ko. E quando miro in cielo arder le stelle. curated by Alice Montanini, BUILDINGBOX, Milan, 2022
Alzarono gli occhi e avvertirono il cielo, EAST Galerie, Strasbourg, 2022
Andature II, Elisabetta di Maggio _ Sophie Ko, curated by Marcella Cangioli and Antonella Nicola, text by Francesco Guzzetti, in collaboration with Associazione Culturale Città Nascosta and Museo Marino Marini,Florence, 2022
Il resto della terra, texts by Federico Ferrari and Domenico Brancale, Galleria de’Foscherari, Bologna, 2021/2022
The Shape of Gold. 9/12. Sophie Ko, Metaxu, curated by Melania Rossi, BUILDINGBOX, Milan, 2021
Atti di resistenza, in Materie, spazi, visioni, text by Andrea Pinotti, BUILDING, Milan, 2020
Sophie Ko. Geografie temporali, curated by Elisabetta Barisoni and supported by Galleria De’Foscherari, Solo project at Ca’Pesaro- Galleria Internazionale d’arte Moderna, Venice, 2019
Cadere, curated by Francesca Pasini, Libreria delle donne, Milan, 2018
Sporgersi nella notte. texts by Marina Dacci and Maurizio Guerri, Renata Fabbri arte contemporanea, Milan, 2018
Sporgersi nella notte. Atto Primo, San Martino, text by Gaspare Luigi Marcone, The Open Box, Milan, 2018
Terra. Geografie temporali, curated by Federico Ferrari, text by Federico, Galleria de’Foscherari, Bologna, 2016
Silva imaginum, curated by Federico Ferarri, text by Federico Ferrari, Renata Fabbri Contemporary Art, Milan, 2015
Sophie Ko Chkheidze, Solo Show, text by Federico Ferrari, AplusB Contemporary Art, Brescia, 2014.
Nel cielo dove qualcosa luccica, Museum Ettore Archinti, Lodi, 2013
Geografia temporale, Nowhere Gallery, Milan, 2012
Ad altezza d’occhio, curated by Maurizio Guerri, NuovoCIB-Galleria Formentini, Milan, 2011
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
On the Matter II, from an idea of Matteo Lorenzelli, curated by Ilaria Bignotti and Camilla Remondina, at MO.CA-Centro per le nuove culture, Brescia, 2025
FLORA. L’incanto dei fiori nell’arte italiana dal Novecento a oggi. curated by Daniela Ferrari and e Stefano Roffi in collaboration with Mart Museum. via Fondazione Magnani-Rocca 4, Mamiano di Traversetolo (Parma) 2025
On the Matter II, from an idea of Matteo Lorenzelli, curated by Ilaria Bignotti, 2025, Lorenzelli Arte, Milan
NATURAE. Ambienti di arte contemporanea, curated by Melania Rossi, Museo storico e il Parco del castello di Miramare, Trieste, Italy, 006.12.2024-09.11.2025
Uomo a mare is included in By the Means at Hand, Vlatka Horvat‘s project for the Croatian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. Venice, 2024
Peinture sans peindre, EAST Galerie, Strasbourg, 2024
Interaction, curated by Demetrio Paparoni, at Fondazione Made in Cloister, Naples, 2024
In The Night, curated by Geraldine Bloch, SAMoCA Museum of Contemporary Art, Ryiadh, Saudi Arabia, 2024
Premio Santa Croce Grafica, curated by Ilaria Mariotti, Villa Pacchiani, Santa Croce sull’Arno, 2023
Poem Without Word, curated by Stanislao Vialardi at Studio la Città, Verona, 2024
Desiderio. Atto primo, Societé Interludio, Turin, 2023
Perché questo è un tempo duro, Curated by Sergio Risaliti, Circolo, Milan, 2023
Visibilia.Come rendere visibile l’invisibile, curated by Isabella Puliafito, Villa Croce Museo d’arte Contemporanea, Genova, 2023
BAG. Bocconi Art Gallery, Milan, 2022
Segni elementari, direzione artistica Francesco Carofilio Alberobello, 2022
Visibilia. Come rendere visibile l’invisibile, curated by Isabella Puliafito, Palazzo ducale, Gubbio, 2022
Paso doble. Dialoghi sul possibile, curate by Pietro Gagliano, Fondazione Malvina Menegaz , Castelbasso, 2021
Blocks. Storie di dialoghi oltre i limiti, promoted by RISO-Museo regionale d’arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Palermo, curated by Daniela Brignone and Daniela Brignone, Albergo delle Povere, 2021
Passages / Paysages curated by Roberto Lacarbonara, Palazzo Barbò Torre Pallavicina (BG), 2021
Breve storia di una nuova prospettiva in pittura, curated by Alberto Zanchetta, MAC Museo d’arte contemporanea di Lissone, 2021
We can work it out, Renata Fabbri arte contemporanea, 2020
Real Utopias, Curated by Bianca Cerrina Feroni and Melania Rossi, Manifesta 13, Marseille, 2020
La Gallera de’Foscherari 1962-2018, MAMbo-Museo d’Arte Moderna di Bologna, Project Room, 2019-2020
I Dreamed a Dream, curated by Domenico de Chirico, Marignana Arte, Venice, 2019
Vesuvio quotidiano Vesuvio universale, curated by Anna Imponente, Certosa e Museo di San Martino, Naples, 2019
Grand Tour en Italie, curated by Michela Eremita,Palazzo Pratellesi, San Gimignano, 2019
Looking for Utopia, curated by Bianca Cerrina Feroni and Melania Rossi, Novecento, Venice, 2019
Powder and Light, curated by Gaspare Luigi Marcone, NM Contemporary, Principauté de Monaco, 2019
Hortus Conclusus, Fondazione 107, Turin, 2019
Simply Untitled. Sophie Ko and Florian Roithmayr, Isorropia Homegallery, Milan, 2019
Loose Ends, curated by Branca Bencic, Renata Fabbri arte contemporanea, Milan, 2019
Vetrine di Libertà – La Libreria delle donne di Milano, ieri, oggi, curated by Francesca Pasini, Fabbrica del Vapore, Milan, 2019