Exploring the Violent and Sensual Representations of Galli Bodies

Exploring the Body as a Battleground: Galli’s Radical Visions at Goldsmiths CCA

In a compelling retrospective at Goldsmiths Centre for Contemporary Art, the solo exhibition So, So, So by the artist known simply as Galli probes the age-old conflict between human experience and bodily form. Centered around works from the 1980s and 1990s, the exhibition not only revisits a crucial era in socio-political and cultural history but also highlights the enduring complexity of how bodies are perceived, lived in, and politicized.

A Life Marked by Resistance

Galli, born at the closing of World War II and notably small for her age, narrowly escaped the Nazi regime’s policies targeting individuals with perceived physical anomalies. That early brush with systemic violence seems to permeate her work — not as a literal autobiography, but rather as a deep-seated interrogation of the body’s symbolic meaning in society. Rather than dwelling exclusively on personal narrative, Galli’s paintings offer a more universal meditation on the body as a site of tension: desire and disgust, vulnerability and defiance, beauty and monstrosity.

The Influence of Avant-Garde and Counterculture

Much of Galli’s work from this period was shaped by the rebellious energy of West Berlin’s avant-garde movements and the rise of feminist, queer, and disability rights activism. These currents served as fertile ground for her uniquely expressive visual language — a hybrid of sparse brushwork, florid figuration, and unsettling simplicity. In her hands, primary colors and rudimentary shapes form complex compositions that challenge the viewer’s gaze and resist tidy interpretation.

Emotionally Charged Imagery

A striking example of this complexity is found in “o.T., (750 Jahre Galerie Nothelfer)” (1988), where distorted bodies sway in ambiguous motion — possibly dancing, possibly in distress. The juxtaposition of childlike colors with mature themes heightens the work’s unsettling allure. A tiny heart sits in one hand, a sharp blue blade in another — a stark reminder of the dualities Galli embraces: love and violence, innocence and experience, order and chaos.

A Universe of Hybrid Bodies

Galli’s figures shift fluidly between creation and erosion, often lacking clear boundaries or coherent anatomy. Her paintings, drawings, and artist books teem with fantastical forms and folkloric references, capturing bodies in flux — not quite human, not quite other. The index card works, double-sided and scheduled to be flipped mid-exhibition, emphasize the idea of multiplicity and perpetual transformation. In Galli’s world, identity is not fixed but continuously becoming.

Domesticity as Constraint

Toward the later rooms of the exhibition, Galli’s subject matter narrows to more everyday imagery: kettles, bowls, stools. But even here, the sense of containment is strong. Elongated limbs or heads squirm out of confined spaces, evoking the oppressive domestic roles historically assigned to many women and marginalized individuals. These spatial metaphors suggest a desire to break free, yet they remain grounded in a tangible engagement with the body’s unavoidable realities.

Politics of the Flesh

At its core, So, So, So is a masterclass in the political urgency of embodiment. Galli doesn’t depict the body in a neutral light. Instead, she charges each limb and torso with emotion, ideology, and historical memory. Her ambiguous forms act as vessels for a broader set of societal tensions — like housing constraints, gender norms, and ableist standards — yet they never lose a sense of intimacy or playfulness.

A Timely Reintroduction

Curated by Sarah McCrory, this exhibition is both a rediscovery and a recontextualization of an artist who deserves a broader audience. As discourses around bodily autonomy, gender expression, and accessibility gain traction in 21st-century social movements, Galli’s decades-old works remain startlingly relevant.

Through her fiercely imaginative approach to figuration, Galli offers us not only an archive of resistance, but a toolkit for reimagining what it means to inhabit — and perhaps reclaim — a body politicized by the world.

Galli: So, So, So runs at the Goldsmiths Centre for Contemporary Art in London through May 4. For more information, visit the official exhibition page.