‘How not to get lost’, Kaja Stumpf, Oil on linen, 25 x 30 x 4cm, 2024
‘In dreams we fly’, Kaja Stumpf, oil on linen, 28.5 x 33.5 x 4cm, framed in walnut tray frame, 2024
Blue Shop Gallery presents
'Pleasure is a far away land'
Kaja Stumpf | Gallery 2
16th May - 2nd June 2024
(Extended to 7th June 2024)
PV Drinks Wednesday 15th May 6-9pm
72 Brixton Road, Oval SW9 6BH
Gallery opening hours: Wed - Sun | 11am - 6pm
ARTIST TALK | Saturday 1st June 12-1pm for London Gallery Weekend
Kaja Stumpf and Olly Fathers in conversation with Ocki, Blue Shop Gallery Director
RSVP essential hello@blueshopcottage.com
Kaja Stumpf (b.1987) is a Norwegian artist living and working in London. She gained her MA in Fine Art from Central Saint Martins, UAL in 2022.
She is the recipient of several grants, including the Eaton Fund and Tom Wilhelmsens Foundation, and she was selected for the Goodeye Projects residency Fall 2023. She has participated in several group shows, including a duo show at Silian Gallery x Mandy Zhang Art, The Drawing Paper Show at Bridewell Studios, and a solo show at BOTH Gallery.
Stumpf’s recent work examines memory, self-representation, and the mind-body connection. She explores the idea of selective memory and cognitive bias as a means of self-preservation, and through painting, visualises the rumination of potential scenarios between past and present. Utilising staged images and the photographic family archive, she crops the scene and alter the colours to create a sense of delayed familiarity.
‘Pleasure is a far away land’
‘The work explores my reinterpreted story of experience.’
The paintings serve as a visual investigation of the narrative surrounding selective memory and unconscious bias. They navigate the fear of the unknown, the impact of outdated beliefs, and the self-destructive behaviours that hinder personal growth.
Fragmented compositions mirror our tendency to fixate on specific elements of our lives while neglecting others. By portraying the body as a vessel of experience and offering a compassionate perspective, the paintings consider different interpretations and question the motives behind self-sabotage and why we may be reluctant to embrace happiness.
Pleasure, in its various forms—be it physical, emotional, intellectual, or creative—
is found in the present moment, not anxiously awaiting the future or stuck in the past.
Pleasure is found when we are in acceptance of our humanness, including the shadow sides of our psyche.
Pleasure is a far away land while simultaneously it’s everywhere, (hiding) in plain sight.
“There are 3 layers to a moment; your experience, your awareness of the experience and your story about the experience” - Cory Muscara, Lessons from a Buddhist monk.
MA Fine Art, Central Saint Martins, UAL
BA Fashion, Kolding School of Design, Denmark