Sophie Sachs

After completing her Masters of Architecture at the University of Queensland Sophie worked as a lead designer with Urban Art Projects in public art for 5 years. Sophie now works as a full- time artist in her home studio in Brisbane. Winner of NEAP painting prize 2022. Winner of Saint Cloche wall works award, Little Things Art Prize, 2021.

Since her star turn in NEAP’s 2022 edition and the tremendous success of her 2023 solo debut, ‘Still Light’ – a show that garnered widespread acclaim and collector interest – Sachs has gained a devoted following for her ethereal still-life paintings, which capture light in its most delicate and fleeting forms.

At the heart of Sachs’s practice is a fascination with light’s ephemerality, expressed through meticulous arrangements of commonplace objects that bask in direct sunlight. Shadows play an equally vital role in her compositions, weaving an interplay of form and void that pays homage to the still-life tradition while reinterpreting it, capturing the optical effects of light in its most curious arrangements.

“My paintings do not seek to be extremely realistic. I selectively highlight details that inspire and interest me while allowing other elements to become more stylised and retain a painterly quality,” says Sachs. Her work operates in a two-fold approach: an immediate impression of luminous light and colour, followed by a more intimate exploration of detail.