SoiL Thornton

The Rest


03.05.2025 – 21.06.2025

REST noun 
    a. period of relaxing 
    a period of time in which you relax, do not do anything active, or sleep 

    b. remaining part/people/things 
    the other things, people, or parts that remain or that have not been mentioned 

    c. support 
    an object that supports the weight of something

Galerie Neu is pleased to present The Rest, SoiL Thornton’s second solo exhibition at the gallery. 

SoiL Thornton works with and against language and meaning. While their chosen grammar is deconstruction, they enjoy playing with misunderstandings and ambiguities. The titles and techniques of the works, which often have a lyrical quality of their own, offer clues about their methodology.

The exhibition invites the visitor to dive into a complexly playful and multi sensorial experience in the linguistic ambiguities of the word “rest” and perhaps encounter on the way questions relating to productivity and othering. 

SoiL Thornton (b. 1990, US) lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. Their practice crosses boundaries of media, ranging from painting, sculpture, and photography to installation and video. SoiL Thornton grapples with identity politics, diversity, productivity, systems of order, and regulative apparatuses.

Recent solo exhibitions include: Simian, Copenhagen (upcoming, June 2025); “candidate screening methods”, Progetto, Lecce (2024); “Painting, the shorter of the longest”, Morán Morán, Los Angeles (2024); “Choosing Suitor”, Secession, Vienna (2023); “Decomposition Evaluation”, Kunstverein Bielefeld, Bielefeld (2022) and “Moreover, does productivity know what it’s named, maybe it calls itself identity?”, Galerie Neu, Berlin (2021). 

During Gallery Weekend Berlin, the artist will also take part of Rushes, a group exhibition at Fluentum, Berlin 

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Installation view, SoiL Thornton, The Rest, Galerie Neu, Berlin, 2025
1,      2,          3,              breathe, 2025 found drawing of graphite on paper, space to think, proposal advertisement for choosing_suitor_intervention 2023 as Many Of Them issue 10 cover, matted and framed 51 x 97 cm
1,      2,          3,              breathe, 2025 (detail)
1,      2,          3,              breathe, 2025 (detail)
1,      2,          3,              breathe, 2025 (detail)
Installation view, SoiL Thornton, The Rest, Galerie Neu, Berlin, 2025
decentralized portrait selves, 2025 one pompom for each day I’ve been alive up until the display of,  2 inch Pom Pom balls (12.901) dimensions variable
decentralized portrait selves, 2025 (details) one pompom for each day I’ve been alive up until the display of,  2 inch Pom Pom balls (12.901) dimensions variable
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Installation view, SoiL Thornton, The Rest, Galerie Neu, Berlin, 2025