Sofia Pashaei

Sofia Pashaei works with oils on linen to create incredibly atmospheric domestic scenes. With a confidence in use of colour which parallels the work of the Expressionists and The Blue Rider Group, Pashaei wields her brush to each canvas with immense precision. What has shifted however, is that the figures in her pieces are women enjoying other women’s company, contrasting the male lens seen in Degas’s paintings of women bathing. The mood is one of total adoration for female intimacy and companionship. Her painting style is illustrative and graphic, crafting enticing tableaux in bedrooms, bathrooms, and kitchens. A spotlight might highlight the passing of a lemon, or the reaching for a glass of wine between friends. Functioning like candid photographs, each painting brings about a peaceful moment in time which has been carefully distilled by Pashaei. Absurdist details make their way onto the canvas, for example, a bathtub may split into a table the scale of limbs might be slightly out of kilter, or a goose may wander from outside in one painting, into a room of another work. This humour imbues each painting with a charm that is seen cohesively as they operate as an ode to female friendship. ...

Ballon Rouge began as a nomadic gallery in September of 2017. In our first two years we put up exhibitions in Istanbul, London, Los Angeles, Brussels, Sao Paulo, Paris, and New York. Each of the cities we visited was stewarded by a ‘collective member’ - a curator who introduced us to artists and to their respective city’s art scene. In March of 2019 we made Brussels our home city, inaugurating our permanent space. While we will continue to do shows abroad alongside our collective members, our primary location is now Brussels. Besides our own exhibitions, the space in Brussels sometimes hosts invited international galleries to show with us in exchange for a show of ours at theirs - a further continuation of our ethos of collaboration and collectivity. So far we have collaborated or will soon collaborate with Hannah Barry Gallery (London); Melange (Cologne); Galerist (Istanbul); Gallery Artbeat, (Tbilisi); the Pill (Istanbul); Pi Artworks (Istanbul, London); Vitrine (London, Basel). ...