Collection: Kaja Stumpf: Worse Than Before, Better Than Yesterday
Kaja Stumpf, The Gift, 2023 (detail)
Sunend is pleased to present the exhibition titled Worse Than Before, Better Than Yesterday by the London-based Norwegian artist Kaja Stumpf, held in June 2023 at BOTH Gallery in London. This was Stumpf's first solo exhibition at a gallery.
This exhibition surveyed Stumpf's continued exploration of human memory's ambiguity. The featured paintings represent themes encompassing memory, nostalgia, perception, innocence and identity. Going beyond what would be Viktor Shklovsky's alienation in art, highlighting the disparity between representation and reality, Stumpf aims for reconciliation.
Kaja Stumpf
Never Let Me Go, 2023
Oil on canvas
114x 152 cm
£2500
Kaja Stumpf, Never Let Me Go, 2022 (detail)
Worse Than Before, Better Than Yesterday emerges as a paradoxical exploration through human perception and temporal fluidity, collapsing timelines and interlacing the concealed with the revealed and multiple versions of 'reality'.
The title hints at the complexities of subjective judgment and the ever-shifting nature of personal experience. It suggests a perpetual oscillation between moments of despair and hope, where we grapple with the haunting spectres of our past while striving for a brighter tomorrow.
Kaja Stumpf
Close Call, 2023
Oil on canvas
30 x 25.5 cm
£600
Kaja challenges our relationship with colour and encourages the viewer to think about how it changes our interpretation of paintings. Kaja shows just what colour means to us individually, evoking memory, nostalgia and emotions, and her closely cropped compositions of the human form help us to reflect on our own bodies and the space we take up.
- Mark Cass, Collector, Director of The Cass Art Spaces, 2023
Kaja Stumpf, Never Let Me Go, 2022, and Close Call, 2023, at BOTH Gallery, London, 2023
Kaja Stumpf
On The Verge, 2023
Oil on canvas
30 x 61 cm
£600
As we evolve and move forward, we need to confront our subconscious motivations and question the validity and purpose of the beliefs we hold on to to understand how they are serving us or if they are holding us back. Are we optimising our potential according to external validation or our own values and expectations of personal growth and fulfilment?
- Kaja Stumpf, 2023
Kaja Stumpf
Worse Than Before, Better Than Yesterday, 2023Oil on canvas
30 x 61 cm
£600
Kaja Stumpf
Dormant, 2023
Oil on canvas
30 x 61 cm
£600
Installation view from left: Tongue Twister, On The Verge, Worse than Before, Better than Yesterday, and Dormant (all 2023), BOTH Gallery, London, 2023
Stumpf prompts reflection on our perception of images and reality, blurring the lines between what is real and what is not. She points to the fluidity of 'reality' by exploring the subjective nature of perception and taking image representation to its limits.
Kaja Stumpf, On The Verge, 2022 (detail)
Stumpf engages with the intricacies of human perception, particularly regarding time and memory, and their impact on our understanding of progress. she explores how our conventional notions of time as a linear narrative don't capture the complexities of our experiences. By working with past images in the present, she compresses time, blurring the boundaries between different life stages. Through this dialogue her work highlights the subjective nature of progress and underscores the importance of recognising the nuances of our experiences within the passage of time.
Installation view from left: Compressed, Show Me Your Teeth, Flasher, Jerk and That What Was Not Said (all 2023), BOTH Gallery, London, 2023
Kaja Stumpf
Show Me Your Teeth, 2023
Oil on canvas
25 x 30 cm £500
Kaja Stumpf
Flasher, 2023
Oil on canvas
25.5 x 30 cm £500
Kaja Stumpf
Jerk, 2023
Oil on canvas
25.5 x 30 cm £500
Kaja Stumpf
That Which Was Not Said, 2023
Oil on canvas
25.5 x 30 cm £500
Like Michaël Borremans, Stumpf also engages in a play with contextual elements by adding or removing them, ensuring a sharp psychological impact on the viewer, blurring lines between consciousness and death or reality and fiction.
Sleeper, 2007 by Michaël Borremans
Installation view from left: When Push Comes To Shove and Compressed (both 2023), BOTH Gallery, 2023, London
Kaja Stumpf
When Push Comes To Shove, 2023 (SOLD)
Oil on canvas
40.5 x 55.5 cm £500
Kaja Stumpf
Compressed, 2023
Oil on canvas
36 x 45.5 cm £600
The blurred effect in some of Stumpf's work serves as a metaphor for uncertainty and the absence of control, reminiscent of the technique employed by Gerhard Richter. Similar to Richter's approach, Stumpf merges recognisable imagery with abstract disruptions, compelling viewers to confront and reconcile their own experiences. This blending of visual elements also echoes the technique of J.M.W. Turner, who juxtaposed the representational with the abstract in his works, engaging us in a deeper contemplation of the interplay between perception and reality.
S. with Child, 1995 by Gerhard Richter
Kaja Stumpf
The Gift, 2023
Oil on canvas
115 x 171 cm £2500
Photographic images are often about faculties… but a painting is about your own mortality…all this info [source images] is simply the beginning of a piece. But of course, the source is not where it ends…this field of tension is in which I work.
- Marlene Dumas
Installation view from left: The Gift and Compressed (both 2023), BOTH Gallery, 2023, London
In Stumpf's work, we navigate between emotional resonance and conceptual depth, captivated by their ethereal essence. The impossibility of communication is examined through poetic visuals that evoke conflicting emotions, unspoken in poetry, amplifying and diminishing spoken words. Ultimately, her paintings mirror the viewers.
Kaja Stumpf in front of her work, Never Let Me Go, 2022, and Close Call, 2023 at BOTH Gallery, 2023, London
