Sophie von Hellermann. Elephant in the room

firstsite presents a major exhibition of new painting by the London-based artist Sophie von Hellermann.

Von Hellermann's large-scale, narrative paintings have been described as a 'meltdown of images from books, films, art history, the media and her own life'. Using rapid, broad brushstrokes to apply pure pigment to her canvases, her works have a hazy, dream-like quality.

For her exhibition at firstsite, von Hellermann produced a series of paintings inspired by literal readings of English idiomatic expressions, including the exhibition title, Elephant in the Room. Works include a 7.5-metre high 'pyre' of portraits inspired by the witch trials that took place in Essex during the English Civil War and a mural running through the building that pictures scenes from 1,600 years of Colchester's history from the Roman colony of Camulodunum to the siege of Colchester in 1648.

Sophie von Hellermann (b.Munich, 1975) studied painting at the Kunstakademie, Dusseldorf and the Royal COllege of Art, London. She has held solo exhibitions at Museum Dhondt-Daenens (MMD), Deurle (2010); Le Consortium, Dijon (with Josh Smith,2009); Neuer Aachener Kunstverein, Aachen (2006); and Kunstverein Konstanz (2003). Her work has been included in major survey exhibitions such as Watercolour at Tate Britain (2011). She lives and works in London and Margate.