paintings by year... > a selection of work from 2022 ...

Martina Nehrling, Sonder, 26 x 20 in., acrylic on Montval paper, 2022
Sonder
acrylic on Montval paper
26 x 20 inches
2022

Sonder is almost the opposite of solipsism, the idea that the external world and other minds cannot be known and might not exist outside one’s own mind. Sonder is defined as the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own in which oneself is not only not central but may not exist at all.
The pattern of shapes in the background of this piece gives me the impression of an aptly vague and affable emoji figure. Lighthearted or overused as they may be, I think the popularity of emojis as additions to (or substitutions for) our written communication evinces the kind of shocking, even sorrowful, affect of sonder and the inadequacies of words alone to secure knowledge and understanding of one another.