This spring, acclaimed British-German artist Lexia Hachtmann debuts “Waiting Room,” a provocative new exhibition at YveYANG Gallery in SoHo, New York. Opening with a public reception on May 2, 2025, this highly anticipated solo show presents a series of surrealist paintings that dismantle linear time, inviting viewers into a dreamlike space where myth, memory, and emotional truth intersect.

Hachtmann, known for her deeply evocative and cinematic compositions, approaches this new body of work with an emotional intensity that reflects a world in flux. Painted with meticulous skill, each piece pulses with haunting imagery—distorted faces, mysterious flora, and ghostlike reflections—that mirrors the surreal and unsettling essence of our current cultural moment.

A David Lynch-Inspired Descent Into the Subconscious

The exhibition’s title, Waiting Room, draws inspiration from the liminal, otherworldly space in David Lynch’s Twin Peaks. Like Lynch, Hachtmann weaves a nonlinear visual narrative, collapsing dimensions and playing with psychological tension. Yet while her work echoes Lynch’s uncanny aesthetic, it diverges in its pursuit of emotional intimacy and universal archetypes.

“I came to these canvases as an ambassador of zeitlos—that which is outside time,” Hachtmann explains. “I want viewers to feel as though they’re moving through a space where symbols have dissolved into something more primal and human.”

Highlights from the Exhibition

At the heart of the show is Out of Joint (2025), a melancholic party scene that evokes the eerie stillness after an emotional upheaval. Its title references both Shakespeare’s Hamlet and philosopher Jacques Derrida’s concept of Hauntology. A lone figure gazes at a distant tree while others embrace, talk, or drift through the sepia-toned environment. The painting captures a moment on the brink—of transformation, memory, or perhaps the end of the world.

A recurring motif in Hachtmann’s work is the yellow flower, a literary symbol steeped in meaning. Referencing Michael Cunningham’s The Hours and the ghost of Virginia Woolf, these blooms are rendered in exquisite detail—at once delicate and dangerous. In Bella Donna (2025), the titular flower, known for its toxicity, becomes a symbol of both transformation and foreboding.

Elsewhere in the exhibition, Hachtmann nods again to Twin Peaks through enigmatic imagery evoking the character of The Arm. Her botanical elements hover between bloom and decay, suggesting states of liminality and constant change.

About Lexia Hachtmann

Lexia Hachtmann (b. 1993, Berlin) is a celebrated painter and printmaker based in London. She is a graduate of the Universität der Künste Berlin, Slade School of Fine Art, and the Goldrausch Künstlerinnenprojekt. Her work has been exhibited internationally in New York, Madrid, Seoul, and Berlin, and she is a recipient of the Cass Art Prize.

YveYANG Gallery: A Hub for Experimental Contemporary Art

Located in a historic former sewing machine factory in SoHo, YveYANG Gallery continues to push boundaries in the contemporary art scene. Since its founding in Boston’s SoWa Art + Design district in 2016, the gallery has prioritized innovative approaches to storytelling, particularly in response to ev

After moving to New York, YveYANG has become a vital space for emerging and mid-career artists from around the globe, fostering new dialogues in painting, installation, and digital media.