Keiyona C. Stumpf: Selected works, 2020-2023
The infinite repertoire of natural phenomena, their inherent conformity to laws and their forces of growth and decay are an inexhaustible source of inspiration for me.
In an organic/abstract vocabulary of forms, I endeavor to make the essence of being alive tangible. Order and chaos, as original principles of life, form a starting point for both form and content. Alien yet strangely familiar-seeming forms experience diverse metamorphoses in my sculptures and installations or find their subtle balance between stability and instability in round, flowing silhouettes.
Guided by feeling and intuition, I allow the works to grow from an interplay of concrete ideas and reactions to random changes in the making process itself. Thus, the works always seem driven by an inner dynamic, and their potential for change is inherent. They should not be understood as merely imitating nature but rather as expressing individual experience and interpretation of natural principles and laws. They play with the viewer’s sense of beauty and question the individual norms and presets of one’s own perceptions.
The naturally beautiful is not regarded as something perfect here but as an expression of a creative process that is able to touch our own realities to connect us with the most fundamental principles of our existence.
Ultimately, humankind and nature do not stand separate from each other as a pair of opposites. Nature is not only the basis of our existence; we are “nature” and bear all its principles in us. Through my works, I hope to speak to this uplifting sense of aliveness in some of us and thus to re-pose the question of beauty, dynamism, and change.
Captions
- Symbiosis, 2020, glazed ceramic, 91 x 65 x 43 cm. Photo credit: Keiyona C. Stumpf
- Coronation II, 2020, glazed ceramic, 86 x 72 x 64 cm.
- Metamorphose II, 2020, glazed porcelain, 30 x 23 x 22 cm. Photo credit: Bruno Brucchi, Galleria Antonella Villanova
- Metamorphose III, glazed porcelain, 35 x 36 x 25 cm. Photo credit: Bruno Brucchi, Galleria Antonella Villanova
- Shrine II, 2022, glazed ceramic, gold 12%, 50 x 43 x 34 cm. Photo credit: Keiyona C. Stumpf
- Cascade II, 2020, glazed porcelain, 41 x 25 x 21 cm. Photo credit: Bruno Brucchi, Galleria Antonella Villanova
- Cascade III, 2020, glazed porcelain, 41 x 25 x 21 cm. Photo credit: Bruno Brucchi, Galleria Antonella Villanova
- Grip of Nature III, 2023, glazed ceramic and porcelain, 50 x 50 x 44 cm. Photo credit: Keiyona C. Stumpf
- Grip of Nature IV, 2023, glazed ceramic and porcelain, 50 x 50 x 44 cm. Photo credit: Bruno Brucchi, Galleria Antonella Villanova
- Grip of Nature VI, 2023, glazed ceramic and porcelain, 53 x 41 x 36 cm. Photo credit: Bruno Brucchi, Galleria Antonella Villanova
- Vase I, 2023, glazed ceramic, 38 x 32 x 31 cm. Photo credit: Bruno Brucchi, Galleria Antonella Villanova
- Vase II, glazed ceramic, 38 x 40 x 40 cm. Photo credit: Bruno Brucchi, Galleria Antonella Villanova
