Sophie Whettnall (b. 1973, Brussels) is a Belgian multidisciplinary artist whose practice spans drawing, painting, sculpture, video, installation, and performance. Rooted in the language of landscape and light, her work explores themes of physicality, duality, and perception. She often employs repeated gestures and durational processes to evoke spatial and emotional depth, creating immersive works that balance stillness and movement, softness and strength, intimacy and distance.

Whettnall’s work engages with the tension between presence and absence, often using the body—either directly or as a trace—to explore the boundaries between inner and outer landscapes. Her video performance Shadow Boxing (2004), for example, presents a striking meditation on vulnerability and resistance, as she remains motionless while a boxer strikes the air around her. This interest in psychological and physical space extends into her drawings and installations, where she constructs environments that invite both contemplation and heightened sensory awareness.

Since receiving the Prix de la Jeune Peinture Belge in 1999, Whettnall has exhibited widely in Europe and internationally. Notable presentations include the Venice Biennale (2007), solo exhibitions at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts (2010), CENTRALE for Contemporary Art in Brussels (2019, in dialogue with Etel Adnan), and exhibitions with Galleria Continua, Vera Cortês (Lisbon), and Baronian (Brussels). Her work is held in both public and private collections, and she continues to pursue site-specific commissions, including a large mosaic installation for the Toulouse metro, set for completion in 2027.

Sophie Whettnall lives and works in Brussels. Her practice remains deeply engaged with the transformative potential of gesture, material, and time to navigate both personal and collective experience.