Margot Samel is pleased to announce Ombromanie, a solo exhibition by Sarah Margnetti (b. 1983, Monthey, Switzerland). This is the artist’s second solo exhibition with the gallery and in the US.
In Ombromanie Margnetti delves into the concept of play—both in its literal and metaphorical forms. The show features new murals and paintings, including a diptych that captures moments suspended between action and reflection, where something is happening, yet the narrative remains subtle and elusive. Margnetti’s meticulous process is evident in the precision and depth of each work, encouraging viewers to pause, look closer, and reflect on the hidden layers beneath the surface.
At the core of these works is the notion of play—games, puzzles, and pieces set in motion. Yet Margnetti’s engagement with these motifs transcends mere recreation, probing the subconscious structures that govern human interaction. Through depictions of hands forming shadows, assembling puzzles, or signaling moves in games, the artist evokes moments of decision, transition, and creation. Her references to timeless, cross-cultural games such as chess, nine men’s morris (or “cowboy checkers”), shadow play, and knucklebones – a game dating back to Ancient Greece where sheep bones were used to create combinations– enrich her exploration of play’s universal significance.
Margnetti’s approach to image-making aligns with the idea of painting as an optical device—functioning as a “window onto the world”—through which the viewer is invited to question and reinterpret reality. Her canvases, though mimicking the real, challenge viewers with layers of ambiguity, drawing them to delve deeper, much like players navigating the unspoken rules of a game.
For instance, in Puzzled (missing piece), a woman assembling a puzzle seems to become part of the puzzle itself, an inception-like moment that blurs boundaries between realities. Similarly, in her chess diptych, Margnetti presents a traditional wooden board across two adjacent canvases. The chess pieces are reimagined as composed of hands, each performing gestures that convey distinct emotions: pawns adopt protective postures, bishops express sorrow, while kings assert their masculinity through self-referential gestures. This transformation of chess pieces into elements made of hands adds symbolic depth, subverting the usual dynamics of strategy and competition inherent to the game. The artist positions all the pawns—black and white—on one side of the board, arranged in mirrored but unconventional postures, creating a new form of dialogue among them. On the opposite side, two queens, depicted larger than the other pieces, seem on the verge of embracing, subtly challenging the rigid binary opposition that defines the game.
This concept of rethinking the rules of the game is also evident in another work, a chessboard devoid of pieces, where the marble-like faux frame portrays a series of hands clasped together at the thumbs—suggesting both an inability to play and a desire for connection.
Complementing the canvases is a window painting created specifically for the gallery. Depicting two hands forming a bird, this ephemeral work echoes the recurring hand motifs in her paintings, reinforcing gesture as an active, shaping force. As light passes through the window at different times of the day, it introduces a shifting, atmospheric quality. In addition, a wall piece featuring two moths—one resembling a nose and the other an ear—interacts with a lamp object positioned between them, continuing her playful exploration of sensory perception and the relationship between the painted surface and physical space.
In Ombromanie, the artist invites us to reconsider play not just as a source of amusement, but as a method for deconstructing perception and interaction. Her works challenge the boundaries between reality and illusion, as demonstrated through her recurring use of the trompe-l’œil technique, encouraging viewers to uncover the hidden systems that shape how we see and engage with the world, while prompting a search for the “missing piece”. This process of deconstruction also introduces a political and feminist dimension, where Margnetti’s creation process emphasizes care, thoughtful engagement, and the emergence of the soggetto imprevisto—the unexpected subject. In a way that recalls Carla Lonzi’s critique of patriarchal structures, these pieces deconstruct established rules and confronts binary thinking, especially in systems of control and dominance. As Wittgenstein explored in his Philosophical Investigations, understanding a game requires understanding its rules. Margnetti’s work pushes us to not only understand these rules but to question and dismantle them, revealing new ways of playing and perceiving that foreground care, complexity, and the unpredicted.
—Ginevra Ludovici
