Installation view of “vanessa german: GUMBALL—there is absolutely no space between body and soul,” Kasmin, 509 West 27th Street, New York, N.Y. (April 3-May 10, 2025). | Courtesy the artist and Kasmin, New York
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THE LATEST EXHIBITION of vanessa german (b. 1976) presented two new mixed-media sculpture series across two locations at Kasmin gallery in New York. Titled “GUMBALL—there is absolutely no space between body and soul,” the show featured monumental heads inspired by the colossal-sized stone Olmec heads of ancient Mesoamerica and fallen figures that reference the highly skilled dip or “death drop” move performed by vogue dancers in the ballroom culture originated by queer communities in Harlem. The sculptures are fascinating and joyful, odd and mystical.
Based in Pittsburgh, Pa., German works across sculpture, performance, and community ritual. Self taught, she describes herself as a “citizen artist” whose practice is designed to “cultivate spiritual models for transforming human experience.” Working with an eclectic mix of materials, she makes imaginative and expressive works that channel love, healing, regeneration, and soul protection.
Eight figurative works and nine heads were on view in the exhibition, including the title work “GUMBO” (2025), which is composed of materials such as plaster, gemstones, minerals, cut glass crystal, fish key chains, hand-blown glass gumball, pink prayer beads, wood, and Astroturf. In addition to tangible items, german also specifies the transcendental elements employed in the production of her sculptures. For “GUMBALL,” these more ephemeral materials include “a love song to the Soul of it all,” “a house in which to grow wise in a manner with allows no violation to the being,” “prayers of grace, “the intimacy of loneliness giving into the knowing of deep and true wholeness,” “joyous angelic presence,” and “the levity of the Buddha—HA HA.” CT
“vanessa german: GUMBALL—there is absolutely no space between body and soul” was on view at Kasmin gallery in New York, N.Y., from April 3-May 10, 2025
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FIND MORE about vanessa german on Instagram and at Kasmin gallery
VANESSA GERMAN, “GUMBALL, or, Gloriously Underestimated Magical Bounty As Living Love. Or, An Invitation to Contemplation at the pace of One’s own Divine Soul.,” 2025. (gemstones and minerals: tigers eye, onyx, obsidian, rose quartz, morganite, lapis, aragonite, citrine, agate, dyed jade, titanium heated geode, spirit quartz. Cut glass crystal, fish key chains, a love song to the Soul of it all, a house in which to grow wise in a manner with allows no violation to the being, wood, hand blown glass gumball, ceramic figurine, pink prayer beads, prayers of grace and the intimacy of loneliness giving into the knowing of deep and true wholeness, light, astroturf, joyous angelic presence, the levity of the Buddha—HA HA. Love, memories of my grandmother, plaster, plaster gauze, cardboard, obsidian lucky foot, 3-4bags of my/the artist’s recycling, a laying on of hands and a release into the grace of being held outside of one’s own mind, joy, ceramic butterflies, the way that black girls—in my youth—could speak their own language by chewing and popping gum, beaded flowers, hope, newness, porcelain tile, slow down, it’s going to be ok, 87 x 47 1/2 x 43 1/2 inches \ 221 x 120.7 x 110.5 cm). | © vanessa german. Courtesy the artist and Kasmin, New York
Installation view of “vanessa german: GUMBALL—there is absolutely no space between body and soul,” Kasmin, 509 West 27th Street, New York, N.Y. (April 3-May 10, 2025). | Courtesy the artist and Kasmin, New York
VANESSA GERMAN, “the siddhi of the soul,” 2025 (rose quartz, wood, plaster, plaster gauze, the shine of the full moon on my mother’s face while saving my sister’s life, pyrite, joy, the ecstasy of creativity, marble tile, astroturf, for how it is to know that you are but a splinter of the whole and also entirely whole the same time, a revelation of lapis, citrine, the way that clouds are creative, a loosing against old ways of power, a healing song sung just of breath and now-ness, amethyst, 3 quilts and the love of jill and Dev, the hands of dev, the hands of jordan, the hands of our collective soul, strawberry quartz, fish key chains, a mammy creamer in the eye, hematite, butterflies made by the artist, a muse against cruelty, for how it is to be alive inside of this holy soul, magic,” 65 x 36 1/2 x 36 1/2 inches / 165.1 x 92.7 x 92.7 cm). | © vanessa german. Courtesy the artist and Kasmin, New York
VANESSA GERMAN, “sweet love, or THE HUNGER OF IT ALL IS EATING ME UP, or, ACIM lesson #28 and #31, respectively: Above all else, I want to see things differently. I am not a victim of the world I see.,” 2025 (a wondrous muse of light, wood, doll parts, cloth, twine, how it feels to be swallowed whole and then to come out the other end wet and brand new, the spice of life, wire, beads, beaded glass trim, spray paint, strange pot metal black figure with a mouth open wide in a wail or an attempt to swallow the universe, porcelain figurine being swallowed whole, the tension of the having or not having or being had, the way that n it even greed can thwart death, pyrite phallus, chain, rhinestone, the blackness, 37 1/2 x 24 x 14 1/8 inches / 95.3 x 61 x 35.9 cm). © vanessa german. Courtesy the artist and Kasmin, New York
Installation view of “vanessa german: GUMBALL—there is absolutely no space between body and soul,” Kasmin, 514 West 28th Street, New York, N.Y. (April 3-May 10, 2025). | Courtesy the artist and Kasmin, New York
VANESSA GERMAN, “DANCE, BITCH, OR ELSE! Or, ACIM lessons #16 and #17: I have no neutral thoughts. I see no neutral things.,” 2025 (Deathfall of the Empire in Dazzling Black: she is a house, she is giving obviousness, she is giving wood, snarling light, spraypaint, holier-than-thou. She is giving concrete stakes, balance, spray paint as nod to Jean-Michel and the tenants of creative freedom,” 27 x 11 x 14 inches /68.6 x 27.9 x 35.6 cm). | © vanessa german. Courtesy the artist and Kasmin, New York
VANESSA GERMAN, “George—at the precipice of the fall,” 2025 (George Washington doll head, the sound of remorse coming up from out of the ground, the end of nostalgia as political mandate, wood, plaster, plaster gauze, rhinestone appliqués, jewelry pieces, gemstone owl, beaded glass trim, a found racist horror of two black faces emerging from over-large ceramic feet, the joy of dancing and knowing that you are free and alive and whole, spray paint, heat and the feeling of hatred, the becoming medicine of the soul, an open imagination, small African mask found in Brooklyn right near the bridge, this game is still very challenging isn’t it, the obviousness of this old grief, how it is to run away from yourself and never get caught, a dancing queen, a penis where one wants a gun, the clearest shape of freedom is being loosed open at this very moment and this artwork is but a glimpse into a new doorway, 31 x 15 3/4 x 12 inches / 78.7 x 40 x 30.5 cm). | © vanessa german. Courtesy the artist and Kasmin, New York
VANESSA GERMAN, “CLASSIC, or, ACIM lesson #9: I see nothing as it is now.,” 2025 (She is a blues in drip and light. She is giving obviousness. She is: wood, plaster, plaster gauze, a pause, a hinterland adventure into her own wilderness, she is giving perspective and consternation as medicine. She is giving old car text ornament; labor
and grease, engine and exhaust. She is giving combustion and relief. She is given rhinestone and chain. She is giving gold-filled. She is given precious little dainty ceramic baby and monkey band dupe. She is giving fragility. She is giving the miseries of luxury at doll scale. She is grounded in her sacral chakra. She has no need to spaceship to mars. She bites and offers prescriptive accountability in the divine nature of mutuality as a threshold of understanding. She is lapis, glass beaded trim and sodalite, she is sapphire and aragonite. She is spray paint and intentional damage to the aesthetic narrative of perfection as luminous existence, titanium coated quartz, doll parts, the blues and the drip of it, the tension of greed and how not even greed can stave off death, might as well fly, 37 1/2 x 11 1/2 x 11 inches / 95.3 x 29.2 x 27.9 cm). | © vanessa german. Courtesy the artist and Kasmin, New York
Installation view of “vanessa german: GUMBALL—there is absolutely no space between body and soul,” Kasmin, 514 West 28th Street, New York, N.Y. (April 3-May 10, 2025). | Courtesy the artist and Kasmin, New York
VANESSA GERMAN, “you own soul is a true magic,” 2025 (wood, marble tile, love, red glass beads, rose quartz, onyx, obsidian, shungite, Smokey quartz, lapis, agate, candelabras, joy, a found wooden footh, ceramic birds, pyrite, sodalite, emerald with quartz, black beaded text, sitting down in the soul for a made-up song, mirror, amethyst, beaded key chains from guatamala [sic], astroturf, agate, morganite, creativity as antidote, silence, dancing, forgiveness. 70 x 43 x 36 1/4 inches / 177.8 x 109.2 x 92.1 cm). | © vanessa german. Courtesy the artist and Kasmin, New York
VANESSA GERMAN, “the emergence, or, on considering the transformative nature of the dragon fly as told by Richard Rudd., 2025 (we dance here don’t we bend out our bones and loose our spirts free in an agreement of birth and suffering, wood, plaster, plaster gauze, lapis, sodalite, blue kyanite, quartz, rose quartz, dyed howlite, turquoise, bottles, blue things at the bottom of the sea, languishing, morganite, blue amber eye bee—for seeing the unseen inside of your own self, the deep grief of it all, the light from the wound, blue pigments, a white snake for transformation, a solid fearlessness, grace, onyx, obsidian, rhinestones, cut glass, a host of possibilities, magic and loving that keeps making itself new, over and over again, 64 x 40 x 38 inches / 162.6 x 101.6 x 96.5 cm). | © vanessa german. Courtesy the artist and Kasmin, New York
Installation view of “vanessa german: GUMBALL—there is absolutely no space between body and soul,” Kasmin, 509 West 27th Street, New York, N.Y. (April 3-May 10, 2025). | Courtesy the artist and Kasmin, New York
VANESSA GERMAN, “lover, lover, lover boi,” 2025 (arm trans women, existence cannot be non-existence, get over it, love, love, love, wood, plaster, plaster gauze, bottle cap chain, forgiveness, clear quartz, cut glass, titanium dyed geodes, onyx, obsidian, shungite, Smokey quartz, beaded glass trim, the grief always, the opposite of self loathing, a Native American beaded hat from a trading post near what we now call, “the Grand Canyon.” Heat, starlight, the dance of all ages, kissing and fucking for the peace and joy of it all, anatomical heart model, mam my note pad body with original pencil, cut glass ring holder, quartz points from the land we now call, “Arkansas”, cowboy salt shaker, a snake for the bite and shrugging off of the passage of time., 77 x 31 x 34 inches / 195.6 x 78.7 x 86.4 cm). | © vanessa german. Courtesy the artist and Kasmin, New York
VANESSA GERMAN, Side view of “lover, lover, lover boi,” 2025 (arm trans women, existence cannot be non-existence, get over it, love, love, love, wood, plaster, plaster gauze, bottle cap chain, forgiveness, clear quartz, cut glass, titanium dyed geodes, onyx, obsidian, shungite, Smokey quartz, beaded glass trim, the grief always, the opposite of self loathing, a Native American beaded hat from a trading post near what we now call, “the Grand Canyon.” Heat, starlight, the dance of all ages, kissing and fucking for the peace and joy of it all, anatomical heart model, mam my note pad body with original pencil, cut glass ring holder, quartz points from the land we now call, “Arkansas”, cowboy salt shaker, a snake for the bite and shrugging off of the passage of time., 77 x 31 x 34 inches / 195.6 x 78.7 x 86.4 cm). | © vanessa german. Courtesy the artist and Kasmin, New York
Installation view of “vanessa german: GUMBALL—there is absolutely no space between body and soul,” Kasmin, 509 West 27th Street, New York, N.Y. (April 3-May 10, 2025). | Courtesy the artist and Kasmin, New York
