Lexia Hachtmann paintings depict moments caught in mid-pose, in which the uncanny feeling of something about to happen lingers in the air. The work in the show navigates human intimacies and uses the game as a metaphor to talk about hierarchies, power dynamics and dualities. In a world stricken so heavily by war and conflict, the idea of the night reoccurs as a moment of stillness within a time of encompassing entropy that narrate personal moments of anxiety, loss, darkness and fear. The subjects as well as objects in the work poise in this very moment before everything seemingly falls apart. Reminiscent of a film-still, we are invited to see those fleeting moments just before and just after. These feelings of navigating in a world between the in- and outside hang heavy in the air caught between dark and yet luminous blocks of colour, in which the close-up of a gaze, a vanitas motifs, a game of spin-the-bottle or the farewell of a lover become allegories for this threshold.
Lexia Hachtmann lives and works in London and is currently concluding her Masters of Fine Art (Painting) at the Slade School of Fine Art (UCL).