Sophia Baraschi-Ehrlich,
The Moment Held

August 1 - September 5, 2025

One Grand Gallery is delighted to welcome Sophia Baraschi-Ehrlich for her first solo exhibition. The Moment Held explores the conversation between self and the natural world through the artist’s practiced emotional, spiritual, and psychological lenses. Her canvases carefully manipulate color, light, and touch, employing monochromatic and limited palettes to harness a charged energy. In this exhibition, dreams and trees are at the forefront of the works on display while intimations of windows call into question portals, both tangible and abstract, as bridges into different planes of understanding.

Having grown up in Manhattan, with limited access to forests, rolling hills, and open skies, Baraschi-Ehrlich was left with a constant yearning to be “elsewhere.” Whether from life, photographs, or dreams, she searches for references that connect her to this longing for nature. This is informed by the artist’s Sufi upbringing and early Waldorf education, both of which made her attuned to the dialogue between inner and outer worlds. As such, each painting on display is rooted in a romantic feeling of yearning for something unnameable and magical. Figuration—particularly self-portraiture—initially emerged as the most genuine way to communicate this relationship. In recent years, however, the artist has been experimenting with restructuring that narrative. The trees, meadows, and sunlight in her canvases instead emerge as the protagonists, while the human presence takes on a supportive role. Shadows of figures are obscured or poke out between layers of paint and foliage such as in “As spring flowers bloom” whereas in “Blue like a tree,” the figure does not appear at all. In window works such as “Looking out, reaching in” nature remains the focal point through compositional framing while retaining a similar tinge of melancholy. Windows, like dreams, often hint at something beyond immediate reach. The scenes Baraschi-Ehrlich paints are both familiar and distant at the same time. As a result, The Moment Held intentionally restructures our understanding of perception—each of these paintings lets the light in, making space for curiosity and communion.


Sophia Baraschi-Ehrlich is an emerging artist from New York City who currently lives and works in Portland, Oregon. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Studio Art from Skidmore College and has further developed her practice through studies at The Art Students’ League (NYC), The New York Studio School (NYC), Studio Incamminati (PA), and Studio Escalier (FR). From ‘24-’25 Sophia was a cohort member of New York City Crit Club’s Canopy Program with Victoria Roth and in the Fall of 2025 is headed to the UK to pursue her Fine Art MA at City & Guilds of London Art School.




@sophiabaraschiehrlich
sophiabaraschi-e.com

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