Sascha Missfeldt: kleinkariert

Sugarlift is pleased to announce kleinkariert, the gallery’s first solo exhibition of work by Berlin-based artist Sascha Missfeldt. Featuring new paintings and an immersive mural installation, the exhibition will be on view from July 11 through July 31, 2024.

Berlin's street art history is deeply intertwined with the city's political and cultural evolution, providing fertile ground for artists like Sascha Missfeldt. Emerging from a tradition that began in the 1970s and 1980s, Missfeldt's work encapsulates the dynamic and rebellious spirit that has defined Berlin's urban art scene.

In the artist’s native German, the word “kleinkariert” means petty, narrow-minded, and lacking generosity. By employing a wide range of shapes and disruptive marks, Missfeldt subverts this notion, instead celebrating creativity and expansiveness. He infuses the word with color, transforming it into a celebration that breaks free from conventional constraints.

The exhibition is designed to mirror Missfeldt's improvisational approach, emphasizing spontaneity and uninhibited self-expression through painting. Viewers will be immersed within a large mural, punctuated by canvases placed in front. The use of small squares is a distinctive feature of Missfeldt's style. He applies areas of color with overlaid grids, incorporating small checks, misshapen circles, bars, and wildly speckled dabs. The interplay of dynamism and stability juxtaposes against the concept of the kleinkariert. Missfeldt embraces the lightness that comes from surrendering to intuitiveness, creating free-flowing works.

“For me, this kind of lightness is the best thing about painting,” Missfeldt reflects. “I try to keep this freedom of mind, intuition, and freshness by painting emotionally and intuitively abstract with simple forms.”