My artistic practice centers on figurative oil painting. Working primarily with oil on canvas, I explore the human figure as a vehicle for emotion, memory, and psychological presence. Through layered brushwork, subtle color relationships, and carefully developed compositions, I seek to capture moments that exist between reality and inner experience.
My paintings are not intended to tell literal stories or provide fixed narratives. Instead, they invite viewers into an emotional space where expression, gesture, and atmosphere become more important than explanation. I am interested in the quiet tension between presence and absence, vulnerability and strength, intimacy and distance.
At the heart of my practice is the belief that painting can communicate what words cannot. Each work develops through an intuitive dialogue between observation, material, and emotion. Rather than illustrating a specific message, I strive to create images that resonate on a personal level. Like music, my paintings do not require explanation to be understood—they invite viewers to slow down, engage emotionally, and discover their own meaning within the work.
Biography
Julia Sophia Neundorf has lived and worked in Erfurt, Germany, since 2014. Since 2024, she has been represented by the Meet Frida Foundation in Hamburg and has exhibited her work in numerous group exhibitions in Hamburg, Berlin, and throughout Thuringia. Her artistic journey began in early childhood. Following a severe cervical spine injury and a resulting near-death experience, she started drawing and painting on the plaster casts she wore during recovery. After learning to walk again, creativity remained an essential part of her life and gradually developed into her greatest passion.
Early extracurricular support in the visual arts laid the foundation for her artistic development. In 2012, she completed her training as a wood sculptor. She subsequently began studying Fine Arts and Literary Studies. Since 2019, she has maintained her own studio alongside her academic practice, continuously developing a multidisciplinary body of work that explores emotional perception, memory, and the relationship between abstraction and figuration.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
01/1997 Children’s Art Award,Gold Prize Europe wide publication
04/2012 Graduation as Wood Sculptor
08/2021 Berlinathive, Galerie Michaela Helfrich, Berlin
12/2021 YEA,Young Artist Exhibition, Kunsthaus Erfurt
02/2025 Galerie Waidspeicher, Erfurt,The Outline of Control
07/2025 Weimar Palais Theatre, Bad Liebenstein, Honoured for Artistic Achievement
09/2025 HAAM Group Show, Hamburg