Margaret Innerhofer: Transmutation: 225 West 17th Street

Ethan Cohen Gallery is pleased to present Margaret Innerhofer: Transmutation. This marks Innerhofer’s second solo exhibition with the gallery, and her first in New York City.

Transmutation explores the metamorphosis of the psyche through cycles of collapse and reconstitution, both personal and collective. The show investigates how inner states are mirrored by external structures, how obsolete systems haunt the present, and how, through collapse, new consciousness emerges. Drawing from Jungian archetypes, alchemical symbology, and the collective and personal subconscious, the work becomes a ritualized site for inner and outer transfiguration.

Transmutation unfolds across delineated wall segments throughout both floors of the gallery, forming a directional yet nonlinear journey—a psychic mapping through time, geography, and emotional states.

The experience begins in the Alps, where the artist’s early life was shaped by the mysticism and silence of churches, castles, and convents. It progresses into the urban density of Milan, reflecting a bohemian chapter defined by aesthetic rigor and emotional complexity.

From there, the work transitions into a spatial dialogue with architecture—in homage to the utopian impulse embedded in modernist design.

New York follows, evoking a phase of sensuality, fragmentation, and memory—rooted in the physicality of lived experience and the layered textures of urban life.

The exhibition culminates in a quiet meditation on nature, impermanence, and the unseen—a Buddhist-informed visual koan inviting reflection on the subtler realms of existence.

These walls are not fixed biographical markers, but archetypal thresholds—each one mapping a phase in the ongoing transmutation of the self. Visitors are invited to move chronologically—from origin to dissolution—mirroring the inner transformation traced throughout the space.

About Margaret Innerhofer

Margaret Innerhofer is a New York-based, Italian-born multidisciplinary artist with classical training in fine arts and architecture from the Scuola Politecnica in Milan.

Innerhofer approaches her work by integrating various techniques to blur the boundaries between visual mediums. She treats her photographs as though they were paintings, employing techniques such as layering, juxtaposition, and adding paint and collage. These newly composed "paintings" are then printed onto large canvases. Her exhibitions are often immersive, incorporating composed sound pieces and video to create a fully synesthetic experience.

Her work explores the transitional spaces between spiritual and psychological "borderlands." Drawing on Carl Jung's theories—such as the Collective Unconscious, Archetypal Phenomena, Dream Analysis, and the Shadow Self—as well as Buddhist principles, she investigates how these profound elements shape the interplay between our conscious and unconscious selves and the intangible aspects of our existence.

Motivated by environmental and political concerns, her work contemplates the enigma of subconscious control, the emotional resonance of nature, and the intricate structures we construct and abandon to accommodate our fragmented psyches.

Previously, the artist founded an activist group investigating the convergence of art, architecture, and the environment. In her early career, she co-founded Cha & Innerhofer Architecture, a widely published firm recognized for pioneering minimalist architecture and loft design in New York City.

Innerhofer’s work is represented by Ethan Cohen Gallery in New York City and has been exhibited across Europe and the United States. It has also been featured in publications such as The New York Times, Artforum, Taschen, and others.