Vanessa German

Kasmin presents its second solo exhibition of sculptures by artist Vanessa German (b. 1976), which debuts related bodies of work across two of the gallery's exhibition spaces in New York. Vanessa German: Gumball—There Is Absolutely No Space Between Body and Soul deepens german's singular approach to sculpture as a spiritual practice with the power to transform the lived experiences of all those who encounter it. Drawing from precolonial and African diasporic traditions, german's sculptural technique involves assembling an expansive vocabulary of objects to create expressive figures undergirded by painted and drawn elements. The artist's newest works for Gumball—There Is Absolutely No Space Between Body and Soul foreground german's engagement in haptic communication, interpreting the energy and vibrations of her gemstone materials through physical touch.

In the gallery's flagship 509 West 27th Street location, german unveils a series of monumental heads adorned with mineral crystals, beads, and objects retaining the energy of the earth in which they originated. Each sculpture sparks reflective shimmers of rose quartz, blue lapis, chalcedony and other gemstones, which german uses to impart healing properties. Incorporating stars, words, and human and animal forms across the surfaces, german conceives of these sculptures as cosmic maps, proposing a cartography of consciousness charted through the works' colossal presence. At 514 West 28th Street, german presents a new series of figures who are each caught in a dip, a move performed by vogue dancers and originating in ballroom culture. Capturing the drama of the pose, the figures balance on one leg as the other bends in the air. Described by the artist as an allusion to the fall of empire, the works foreground the resilient quality of the figures, inevitably poised to bounce back upward.

Vanessa German's artistic practice incorporates sculpture, drawing, performance, and communal ritual to embrace spiritual models for transforming human experience. After joining Kasmin's roster in 2021, german presented a solo exhibition at the gallery (2022) and solo presentations at Frieze Los Angeles (2024) and the Independent Art Fair (2022), all of which earned critical acclaim. Her work has since been acquired by over 10 museums, and she has staged major exhibitions at the NSU Art Museum, Ft. Lauderdale, FL (2024-25); Logan Center for the Arts at the University of Chicago (2024); Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, NJ (2023); Mt. Holyoke Art Museum, South Hadley, MA (2022-23); The National Mall, Washington, DC (2023), and other museums across the country. She received a Heinz Award in 2022, and her practice has been hailed in The New York Times, Forbes, Hyperallergic, The Brooklyn Rail and elsewhere. Her work was included in the publications Great Women Sculptors (Phaidon) and Project A Black Planet: The Art and Culture of Panafrica (Art Institute of Chicago) in 2024.