For some years now, Katinka Lampe has been painting mainly portraits. What interests her most is the illusion of the two-dimensional plane of the painting, which magically creates a realistic image even though it is only paint on canvas.
Lampe's reasons for painting mostly children have very little to do with their cuteness or touching. She chooses children's bodies and faces because they do not have wrinkles or other marks of time. This would imbue her faces with an excess of character. They would then become portraits of individuals with a history and a life of their own; and this is precisely what she categorically avoids.
What interests Lampe is the painting itself. She explores the possibilities of painting on canvas and is constantly searching for the limit between abstraction and figuration. To reinforce this aspect she adds an extra layer to the images she creates. By adding a dissonant element she introduces distance to the illusion. A mouth that is too big, a strange nose, hair that looks like a wig; at first glance these elements are disturbing. Her "portraits" intentionally move away from perfection. The message is that we are looking at paint and that the feelings and emotions we experience in front of what is represented are completely out of sync.
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