August 28 – October 3, 2026.
Opening: Friday, August 28, 7 p.m.
Argentine-German artist Marcela Böhm has long maintained a close relationship with Galerie Obrist. She is recognized as one of the most distinctive and original figurative artists in contemporary art. Her work has been featured in numerous exhibitions and acquired for private collections. In September 2026, Marcela Böhm will also be prominently featured in the book MOTHER MADONNA ME, published by Wienand Verlag, Cologne:
The exhibition SOBREMESA focuses on human interaction. With an analytical eye and a unique visual language—at once precise and idiosyncratic—Marcela Böhm observes moments of togetherness. She often finds her subjects where people come together in familiar settings: at family gatherings, festivals, shared meals, or other social occasions.
In Spanish, the exhibition title SOBREMESA refers to that special time after a meal when people linger at the table to converse, share stories, discuss, and enjoy each other’s company. Literally, the term translates to “over the table.” However, it refers to far more than just the time following a meal: *Sobremesa* represents a moment when the original occasion has long since ended, yet precisely because of this, space opens up for human connection.
It is precisely these in-between moments that interest Marcela Böhm. Her figures do not appear as isolated individuals, but rather as part of a social fabric. Glances, postures, gestures, and the physical distances between people become elements just as important as the faces themselves. In doing so, Böhm does not tell unambiguous stories; instead, she captures situations where closeness and distance, familiarity and unfamiliarity, attentiveness and detachment can all coexist.
SOBREMESA can therefore be understood as an exhibition about the subtle rules of human interaction. Who sits next to whom? Who speaks, who listens? Who observes whom? Who is naturally part of the group, and who remains on the periphery? In these seemingly casual situations, Böhm develops a precise panorama of human relationships.
Particularly interesting is the tension between the private nature of her subjects and their universal resonance. A family gathering can be highly specific while simultaneously embodying something universal. Everyone recognizes these situations: lingering at the table after a meal, the conversations, the repetitions, the minor tensions, the familiar gestures, and those moments when someone’s mind has already drifted elsewhere.
Marcela Böhm does not merely capture snapshots of these everyday situations. She transforms them into carefully composed images in which the seemingly trivial suddenly takes on significance. Her figures often appear both present and detached at the same time. It is precisely this ambivalence that gives the works their distinctive tension.
Marcela Böhm does not present an idealized world of togetherness. Her images offer a more precise view. They portray community as something living, contradictory, and at times fragile. This is precisely where their unique quality lies: she discovers the extraordinary within the seemingly ordinary—and a universal human experience within a private moment.
SOBREMESA is an exhibition about people sitting together at a table. And about everything that transpires between them in the process.
