Rahel Sorg: Hyänen weinen nicht

Thu, 16 Oct 2025
18:00-21:00
at Kunstverein am Rosa–Luxemburg–Platz

On view
17 Oct-22 Nov 2025

Rahel Sorg: Hyänen weinen nicht

 
The Kunstverein am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz is pleased to present the first institutional solo exhibition of Rahel Sorg (1993–2025). The title of the exhibition is taken from one of her paintings. At first glance, it appears lighthearted, yet a subtle melancholy runs through it. Like Sorg’s painting, it remains difficult to pin down – seemingly simple, yet resisting a definitive interpretation.
 
Sorg’s work plays with familiar modes of seeing, evoking recognisable forms only to question them immediately afterwards. Her paintings occupy a space on the boundary between figuration and abstraction, marked by an intense use of colour derived from her experimental application of an array of painting materials and techniques.
 
Using a variety of colours and application techniques, sometimes with unconventional tools, Rahel Sorg assembled coloured planes, lines, and other loose forms into intricate compositions. Her paintings are richly abstract and often gesturally expressive, composed of sprayed or painted elements, and frequently engage the support itself so that the painting’s ground becomes an integral part of the work.
 
In doing so, she opens up spaces for questioning – too much or too little, meaning and its absence. Numbers and letters appear, occasionally forming words or sentences, yet often remaining illegible. In conversation with Lina Louisa Krämer, Rahel Sorg described her approach as an attempt to set thought in motion without prescribing its direction.
 
We extend our sincere thanks to Lina Louisa Krämer, Deborah Sorg, Anna Virnich, and Winfried Virnich, without whose commitment this exhibition would not have been possible, and to the Mainz Art Academy for supporting the catalogue.
Rahel Sorg, O.T. Gouache und Acryl auf Leinen, 2022; Foto: Max Eulitz © Rahel Sorg Archive
Rahel Sorg, O.T. Gouache und Acryl auf Leinen, 2022; Foto: Max Eulitz © Rahel Sorg Archive