12.26 West is pleased to present Sophie Varin: Halfway There, a series of new paintings by the French-born, Belgium-based artist.

In this series of miniature paintings, Varin presents a hazy tour through brightly colored mountains, fields, and houses, where strange encounters with unknown faces and figures take place. As seen through the eyes of a roaming onlooker, most scenes are witnessed from afar. The small physical scale of the paintings coupled with the blurred quality of the picture enhances a feeling of unsatisfied curiosity. While the bird’s eye view proposes a powerful authority over these brightly colored landscapes, everything is seen from great length. The distance as well as the uncertainty of the image, urges the viewer to focus on what remains inaccessible and fantasize on what could be missing. Through this unsettling perception, what does become clear is that there is no real plot but instead, perhaps, a setting for a dream.

Sophie Varin was born in Saint-Doulchard, France in 1993. She earned a BA from the Beaux-Arts de Paris and MFA from the Piet Zwart Institute, Rotterdam. She currently lives and works in Brussels. Recent solo exhibitions include Fortnight Institute, New York, Brooke Benington, London, and CunstLink in Brussels; and group exhibitions at Friche Belle de Mai, Marseille; Salon, Madrid; Glassbox, Paris; Galerie De Kromme Elleboog, Rotterdam.