Charlie Stein - Almost Human

CHARLIE STEIN - ALMOST HUMAN

LOHAUS SOMINSKY announces Almost Human, the first New York solo exhibition by Berlin-based artist Charlie Stein, whose work negotiates the fragile border between embodied presence and technological illusion. Stein’s practice reflects an ongoing fascination with figures that are neither fully human nor fully artificial - entities suspended in psychological and material ambiguity.The exhibition gathers new paintings and sculptural works that examine humanity’s long-standing desire to animate the inanimate, from mythic metal bodies to today’s algorithmic doubles. Stein approaches this lineage with a distinctly contemporary urgency. Her figures, rendered with a tactile softness that collides with digital luminosity, appear as beings in transition—charged not by narrative, but by the relational electricity between artwork and viewer.

Charlie Stein is a multidisciplinary artist, writer, and cultural theorist. Her practice operates at the intersection of contemporary art, technology, and critical theory. She engages with themes such as embodiment, intimacy, digital surrealism, and digital aesthetics, working across painting, installation, text, and AI-supported collaborations. With a background in sociology and fine arts, Stein explores the transitions between physical and virtual space, between craft and machine, and between the individual and systemic structures. Stein has participated in both international and national exhibitions, including Manifesta 11, Kunsthalle CCA Andratx, the Sculpture Triennial in Bingen, as well as exhibitions in museums across Europe and Asia. Her work was also included in the ISCP x Almine Rech benefit auction. She is a Fellow of the ISCP program in New York and has held teaching appointments and guest professorships at institutions such as CalArts (Paul Brach Visiting Scholar), the Pratt Institute, the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK), and in Hamburg, where she temporarily led the class of Jorinde Voigt at HfBK. Charlie Stein lives and works in Berlin.

LOHAUS SOMINSKY is delighted to announce the opening of its new gallery space in New York.

The New York inauguration of LOHAUS SOMINSKY will present the exhibition Almost Human by Berlin-based artist Charlie Stein featuring newly created works, including several paintings and a site-specific installation conceived specifically for the Tribeca gallery space. Stein’s artistic approach closely aligns with the gallery’s core interests: exploring embodiment, identity, and the increasingly fluid threshold between human presence and technological apparition. Choosing Stein as the first artist to introduce the gallery to New York is both symbolic and strategic, as she stands at the intersection of contemporary European discourse and the digital anxieties shaping global culture.

LOHAUS SOMINSKY’s gallery space in New York is located at 62 White Street in the heart of Tribeca, one of the city’s most influential and rapidly evolving gallery districts. Defined by notably high walls, a sweeping street-facing window, and a red-brick façade, the space combines the character of industrial New York with the clarity and openness of a contemporary exhibition environment. Designed to accommodate both intimate encounters and ambitious artistic statements, the gallery provides a flexible architectural framework for dynamic programming. Its location was chosen deliberately: Tribeca has become a nexus of dialogue, experimentation, and cross-pollination within the international art scene. From here, the gallery will introduce European artists to New York while presenting New York–based artists in Munich, fostering a sustained and vibrant cultural exchange between the two cities.

Coming from an Eastern European Jewish family with a history of cross-continental movement, Sofia Sominsky spent her childhood in Prague. She later moved to Düsseldorf to study Art History and subsequently to Tel Aviv, where she gained her first gallery experience before continuing her work in galleries in Munich. She has recently relocated to New York to open the gallery’s second space. Ingrid Lohaus holds a PhD in Art History and studied in Augsburg, Rome, and Florence. She has more than twenty years of experience in the art market before founding the gallery LOHAUS SOMINSKY in Munich together with Sofia Sominsky. Both are highly experienced gallerists with local roots and a global spirit, sharing a strong commitment to artists and to bringing their voices and perspectives into the contemporary art scene.

Founded in 2022, LOHAUS SOMINSKY opened its first space in a large former textile warehouse adjacent to Lenbachplatz in Munich’s art district. The gallery’s exhibitions cover a wide range of interdisciplinary themes spanning science, technology, and art history.