Maxime Chabal, Marcus Nelson, Sarah Neumann

hyper-soft: double-down @ Klemm's Downstairs

hyper-soft: double-down presents works by Maxime Chabal, Marcus Nelson, and Sarah Neumann. The exhibition, curated by Guilherme Vilhena Martins and taking place at Klemm’s Downstairs, brings together a group of works that hover at the threshold between the bodily and the architectural. Spanning drawing, installation, and painting, the exhibition unfolds as a field of tension. On one hand, the works mirror a social anxiety embodied in architectural containment and repression; on the other, they twist these conditions open, gesturing toward flight, shelter, and ambiguity, as industrial materials and formal vocabularies are seized and transformed into gestures of tenderness.

Maxime Chabal (France, 1996) is an artist based in Berlin. Across sculpture, collage, and installation, he examines the representation of the human body using industrial materials and layered imagery. By introducing affect and fragility into his work, he destabilizes its presupposed rigidity, creating emotionally charged environments. He completed his master’s degree at the HFBK Hamburg in 2024. Recent exhibitions include Kunsthaus Hamburg, Kunstverein Harburger Bahnhof, ICAT – Institute for Contemporary Art & Transfer, and Galerie Gruppe Motto.

Marcus Nelson (UK, 1997) is a British artist based between Berlin and London. Taking inspiration from theoretical texts, sociological studies and theatre plays, he uses his own body to shape the final outcomes of the work, exploring how our sense of self becomes fragmented as we present different masks to the external world. Through painting, installation and film, Nelson’s work seeks to explore the isolation, paranoia and hidden trauma embedded in modern existence, questioning the authenticity of the self and how we perform within a confined urban environment. 

In her work, Sarah Neumann (Germany, 1996) explores the human body as a psychological and philosophical space rather than a purely biological form. Neumann is interested in where bodily boundaries lie and at what point they shift into something animalistic, demonic, or unfamiliar. She works with various media, including painting, drawing, and sculpture. Her works move between figuration and abstraction, operating within the realm of dream, memory, and subconscious perception. Bodies, landscapes, and ambiguous forms appear only to fragment or dissolve again, hovering between recognition and uncertainty. Tenderness and unease coexist in fragile, hazy spaces.

hyper-soft: double-down runs through April 18, 2026.