Public Gallery is pleased to present windowsillis a solo exhibition of new paintings and sculptures by Berlin-based artist Cathrin Hoffmann, whose themes reflect the physical intensity and mental fatigue of an age of information overload. Hoffmann’s characters no longer display exaggerated gestures of desire or grotesque drama, but are in a state of constant tension and accumulated pressure, deposited on the threshold between endurance and action.
Hofmann’s practice has long focused on the state rather than the subject – her figures often remain in sustained poses, their limitations determined by the constraints of the canvas. Recent works have seen a clear formal shift towards monochrome: reddish-brown tones, from deep ocher to rust and clay, dominate the palette. windowsillThe exhibition’s title embodies this shift, both as a metaphor and as a place. Architecturally, the window sill suggests a ledge – a place of pause and rest, but also a place for voyeuristic consumption. Geologically speaking, it refers to a layer of magma that intrudes into existing rock and cools and solidifies in place. The paintings’ sandy, rough surfaces recall sedimentary layers and the center of the earth, drawing the eye in motion, resisting the speed of digital consumption, embedding resistance in the stillness of Hofmann’s figures, and demonstrating an evolving focus on radical passivity.
The exhibition is further grounded in the concept of “acedia,” an ancient term that describes existential weariness, where existence persists but is unstable. It signifies a state of sanity maintained through endurance, a suspended potential in which action remains conceivable but unable to unfold. concrete sculpture reach the bottom and call it height (2026) gives form to this situation, its twisted limbs, inverted torso and curled toes compressing movement into stillness. exist Don’t forget my figure (2026), the figure’s crossed legs and hunched back register this pressure with particular intensity.
exist let us keep the light of sanity (2026), the extended torso is reduced to a suspended state with only a slight extension of one finger. Horizontality is emphasized not only as a formal concern but also to ground the body in the landscape. Hoffmann makes visible the paradox of our psychological condition: increasing awareness contrasted with an increasing erosion of agency. Here, radical passivity takes on a new dimension as an opposition to the demands for ongoing activity that govern our current moment.
