Instagram: @sohnplenefisch
Sohn Plenefisch is a Brooklyn-based mixed media painter whose practice straddles the line between theatrical craft and fine art. A 2017 graduate of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama with a degree in Design for Performance, Plenefisch brings a deep understanding of scenic construction, surface manipulation, and the emotive power of light into the gallery setting. Their work, informed by years of experience as a scenic artist and fabricator, plays with perspective and atmosphere—often transforming flat canvases into immersive, reactive environments.
Plenefisch’s visual language is sculptural and sensory: foam carving, sawdust textures, crystal embellishments, and resin pours create dimensional works that shift in mood and meaning depending on the viewer’s position. These works are deeply meditative, balancing beauty with themes of solitude, impermanence, and ecological grief.
They have exhibited in Presence//Absence (Rockella Spaces, 2024), at Greenpoint Gallery, and are a current member of 440 Gallery.
Featured Artwork
Title: Birds of North America
Year: 2024
Medium: Mixed Media on Canvas (Acrylic paint, sawdust, crystals)
Dimensions: 72″ x 48″
Price: $4,500
Status: Original, 1 of 1
Exhibition Information
This piece is featured in May 2025: Echoes of the Earth – Environmental Art, curated by Mekhi Deleon. The exhibition examines the ecological and emotional consequences of environmental degradation, inviting artists to reflect on the human relationship with the natural world.
Birds of North America is a visual elegy. In this stark, expansive work, Plenefisch confronts the haunting legacy of extinction, drawing from historical accounts of now-vanished bird species like the passenger pigeon—once so numerous they darkened the sky. With a textured, almost topographical surface built from sawdust and paint, and shimmering embellishments that mimic feathers or falling light, the piece evokes both reverence and regret.
It stands as one of Plenefisch’s most direct works to date—a tactile memorial that blends theatrical craft with ecological urgency, offering viewers a space to mourn what’s already gone while asking: what can we still protect?
Exhibition Dates: May 1 – May 8, 2025
Opening Reception: Thursday, May 1 | 6 PM – 8 PM
Location: Bushwick Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
(for accessibility: full transcript below)
Shadows move across a storm-lit sky, punctured by burning absences.
In Birds of North America, Sohn Plenefisch creates a haunting elegy for species lost to extinction. Each black void, haloed in flame and crystal tears, marks a life that once filled the sky with flight and song.
The surface shifts between violence and reverence. Resin glistens like rain or mourning, while scorched textures speak to irreversible loss.
Plenefisch’s background in scenic design brings a theatrical intimacy to the canvas—transforming ecological grief into a space for remembrance.
Birds of North America is not only a memorial, but a quiet invocation: to remember what we have lost, and to protect what still remains.