In March, YveYANG Gallery will explore the human yearning for a different world through Sehnsucht (Longing), a group show that sits at the intersection of philosophy and psychology featuring the work of Zoë Buckman, Curtis Kulig, Alissa Ritter, Yves Scherer, and Sofie Schnellbach.

Buckman's embroidery on vintage textiles speaks to the ancientness of the sensation from which the exhibition takes its name. In the vulnerability of her fabrics, Buckman invites conversation with the works of younger artists Schnellbach and Ritter, who, unlike her, are not yet household names. These up-and-comers excavate sehnsucht's durability and its shape for those of their generation.

The German concept of sehnsucht has no direct translation in English, but refers to a desire for an imagined, ideal alternative. It was explored in writing by C.S. Lewis and Sigmund Freud, who likened the feeling to wanting to explore the woods with his father again, as a child. Even at 66 years old, Freud spoke of "strange, secret longings," "'perhaps... for a life of quite another kind.'"

Ritter's wall-mounted dog heads evoke childhood. They resemble Gummibärchen (gummy bears), made less friendly by their steel and fiberglass as they guard the corner of the room. Waiting for their masters, they recall loyalty, consumption, and eugenics. Schnellbach's paintings provoke secret symmetries and disunity in objects. One tries to grasp onto iconography like hearts and lips.

"My pictures show figures, loners, observers, assemblages of human traces, appearances that are about to dissolve,” Schnellbach has said.

Lewis found joy in sehnsucht, and considered it a romantic striving. This quality can be felt in the back room of YveYANG, where Scherer offers an intimate flower installation. These handmade ceramic pieces offer an idyllic landscape and allow the viewer an opportunity for projection. The flowers, as well as trees and figures, are referenced two-dimensionally in Scherer's paintings. A screen streaks over these oil works like the fading of a memory.

Kulig's paintings offer similar gestures through a softened autobiography. His flora and fauna are painted with definitive strokes that still allow for the questioning of their reality. The memories rendered here offer impossible experiences. In fact, there is never enough precipitation to make that many snowmen.

We return to Buckman and sehnsucht in its most complicated form. The figures, animals, and words sewn into her works celebrate their sehnsucht, and are wounded of it. They confirm that for all the dubious blessings of sehnsucht, it would be worse to live without it.

Sehnsucht (Longing) is curated by Yve Yang and Stavroula Coulianidis.

About the curator:
Stavroula Coulianidis is a New York-based independent curator. She is the founder of STAV, a curatorial organization dedicated to exhibiting emerging and rediscovered artists with international galleries and institutions. Her projects have been reviewed by The New York Times, Hyperallergic, and The Brooklyn Rail.