Sabrina Bockler: Impending Rapture – The Mythological Dance of Beauty and Conflict

In London’s historic Smithfield district, BEERS London gallery is hosting a richly layered visual feast. Sabrina Bockler’s second solo exhibition with the gallery, “Impending Rapture,” opened on 16 January and will continue to enchant visitors until the end of February.

The exhibition centers on the cyclical shifts between abundance and scarcity, light and darkness, loss and renewal. The title “Impending Rapture” refers to that critical moment of “splitting and continuation”—when a form divides in two and growth becomes possible only through rupture or surrender.

From the Persephone Myth to the Present: A Retelling

Bockler grounds the ten paintings in this series in the tradition of Dutch still life and Renaissance allegorical painting. The narrative anchor of the exhibition is the Persephone myth. For the artist, this myth serves as a metaphor not only for the rhythm of the seasons but also for the emotional cycles human beings undergo.

Bockler “breaks” and reconstructs this ancient story from a contemporary perspective. In her own words:

“The Persephone story gathers obedience, abduction, and defiance into a single poetic yet unsettling arc. To paint this story is to grant Persephone agency while simultaneously questioning and dismantling the tale itself—a retelling built on dissection.”

A Dictionary of Symbols: Fringed Horses and Pomegranate Seeds

For those familiar with Bockler’s work, the visual language in the exhibition feels both recognisable and refreshingly new:

• Pomegranates occupy a central role as symbols of abundance and the underworld.
• Snakes and Flowers appear as constantly shifting, twisting forms, emphasising the fine line between decay and beauty.
• Horses emerge in this series as “psychopomps” (guides that escort souls from the world of the living to the world of the dead). They are simultaneously uncanny guardians of liminal terrain and representatives of sardonic control.

Visual Style: Echoes of John Currin and Sardonic Humour

While playfully mocking traditional still-life aesthetics, Bockler also pays homage to them. This approach, reminiscent of John Currin’s sardonic style, confronts the viewer with both the terrifying and the magnificent. In Bockler’s lexicon, beauty and rupture are inseparable; her works create an atmosphere that is at once decadent and divine.

In London’s winter atmosphere, there is still time until the end of February to witness this colourful and uncanny “rapture”—filtered through the dark corridors of mythology.