In her first exhibition in Brazil, Charline von Heyl presents fifteen recent paintings at Auroras in São Paulo.
Since the 1990s, Charline von Heyl (b. 1960, Germany) has developed a practice characterized by experimentation and a refusal to adhere to a fixed style, distancing herself from both representation and purely formalist abstraction. Her paintings resist stable interpretations and demand an active, imaginative engagement from the viewer.
By introducing deliberately arbitrary rules into her process, the artist establishes internal systems that organize the seemingly fluid flow of her compositions, generating tensions between improvisation and construction, control and instability. Certain elements recur throughout her visual language—such as stars, flames, and even bowling pins—but it is the line that occupies the center of her compositions. Lines appear as grids, outline forms, and create unexpected situations, accelerating or slowing the viewer’s gaze.
In addition to six large-scale paintings, von Heyl presents a series of six smaller works titled Sabotagerie (2026), which operates through formal variations and displacements. The series echoes the colors of Soviet Constructivist illustrations while engaging with the principles of mid-twentieth-century geometric abstraction.
The exhibition is organized in collaboration with Petzel Gallery.
Opening: Sunday, June 14, 12–5 PM
For more information, click here.
