Sophie Kovel
Sophie Kovel (b. 1996, Los Angeles) is an artist and writer living and working in Paris and New York.
Kovel's work examines the economic, social, aesthetic, and ideological operations of nationalism. Projects address the relationship between aesthetics and power, cataloguing the written and visual syntaxes of statecraft to reveal infrastructures of corporate conglomeration and diplomacy.
Recent solo exhibitions include diez, Amsterdam (2025); Space n.n., Munich (2024); Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris (2024); and Petrine, Paris (2023). Kovel has been included in exhibitions at the Hessel Museum of Art, Annandale-On-Hudson (2026); Art in General, New York (2025); NEON Art Foundation, Athens (2024); UncleBrother, Hancock (2023); Jenkins Johnson Gallery, New York (2023); and Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen (2020). Kovel graduated from Columbia University’s MFA in New Genres, where she was awarded the Agnes Martin and Andrew Fisher Fellowships, and was a 2022 studio fellow in the Whitney Museum’s Independent Study Program.
Exhibitions with Petrine:
Sophie Kovel
Smithsonian Museum Gift Shop, Washington, D.C., 2024/2025
pigment print on baryta paper
150 x 100 cm
Sophie Kovel
Marjorie Merriweather Post, Marie Antoinette’s Earrings, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., 2025
pigment print on baryta paper
150 x 99 cm
Sophie Kovel
3450–3660 21st Street, 2021/2024
Film still from single-channel digital video transferred from Super 8, black-and-white, silent
5 minutes, loop
Installation view: Space n.n, Munich (2024)
Sophie Kovel
Model of SCIF Wall A (Standard Wall)—Sound Group 3 (STC 45 or Better), 2024
metal studs, type X gypsum, acoustic fill, assembled and scaled per 2012 Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command (NAVFAC) construction guidelines
144 x 120 x 80 cm
Installation view: Petrine, Paris (2024)
Sophie Kovel
The Diplomatic Reception Room (Views of North America), 2024
Replica of wallpaper panels twenty-seven through thirty - two of the White House Diplomatic Reception Room, Washington, D.C.
dimensions variable
Installation view: Cité Internationale des arts, Paris (2024)
Sophie Kovel
Hardball: How Politics is Played-Told by One Who Knows the Game (The Marble Freedom Trust), 2023
Book gifted to Barre Seid by Steven Baer, a former top executive at Tripp Lite and chairman of the Heartland Institute
14.6 x 22.2 x 2.5 cm
Installation view: Whitney Independent Study Program, New York (2023)
Sophie Kovel
56 Years of Tripp Lite, 2023
Cupcakes and trays, replicas from Barre Seid's 56th annual Tripp Lite company party, 2018
14.6 x 22.2 x 2.5 cm
Installation view: Whitney Independent Study Program, New York (2023)
Sophie Kovel
Camp Topridge, Upper St. Regis Lake, Keese Mill, New York (Registration Office, Main Quadrangle, Adirondack Cabin, Main Buildings, Ridge between Upper and Lower Spectacle Pond, Boat House, Datcha Meeting Room), 2023
12 silver gelatin prints; original press photos by Paul Smith and Skip Dickstein, New York, 1981/1986
88 x 138 cm
Sophie Kovel
United States of America v. Reality Leigh Winner (Xerox Docucolor 240/242/250/252/260, Pluribus International Corporation, Springfield, Virginia, May 9, 2017, 6:20PM) (Screen), 2023
Xerox DocuColor printer screen, NSA documents leaked by Reality Winner to The Intercept
137.16 x 165.35 x 91.95 cm
Left to right:
Sophie Kovel
United States of America v. Reality Leigh Winner (I), 2023
Replica of U.S. Air Force badge case fabric on board with missing Air Force badges, ribbons, and commemorative medal
43.18 x 58.42 cm
Sophie Kovel
United States of America v. Reality Leigh Winner (II), 2023
Bedsheet on board
43.18 x 58.42 cm each; 177.8 x 86.36 cm overall, within the average dimensions of correctional mattresses in Texas State
Sophie Kovel
United States of America v. Reality Leigh Winner (III), 2023
Bedsheet on board
43.18 x 58.42 cm each; 177.8 x 86.36 cm overall, within the average dimensions of correctional mattresses in Texas State
Sophie Kovel
United States of America v. Reality Leigh Winner (IV), 2023
Bedsheet on board
43.18 x 58.42 cm each; 177.8 x 86.36 cm overall, within the average dimensions of correctional mattresses in Texas State
Installation view: Paris Internationale, Paris (2023)
Sophie Kovel
Lieu de mémoire (À utiliser dans service intérieur), 2017-2022
67 French colonial postcards (circa 1904–10); hung at the height of the surrounding fence at La Consulaire, Brest
dimensions variable
Installation view: Petrine, Paris (2022)
Sophie Kovel
Lieu de mémoire (Coq en bronze), 2022
polyurethane, patinated copper
38.1 x 25.4 cm
Sophie Kovel
Untitled (Sometimes it is not a question of what the visible hides but how it is that we have failed to see certain things on the surface) or Untitled (The modern surface), 2022
Floral wrapping paper, sconce replicas of fixtures at the Metropolitan Club, New York
dimensions variable
Installation view: Lenfest Center for the Arts, New York (2022)
Sophie Kovel
Caulk Lock, 2022
replica of the vandalized front door lock system at the Metropolitan Club on October 12, 2018, New York, caulk
20.3 x 16.5 x 18.4 cm
