Kaarlo Stauffer: Phantasmagoria 

Kaarlo Stauffer’s (b. 1988, Nastola, Finland) oil paintings draw on old family photographs. Rather than presenting his family’s story straightforwardly, he reflects on the act of image-making and its relationship to perceptions of reality, blending the traditions of photography and painting.

Stauffer explores themes of time passing and ageing, but also ghosts and the external, nothingness. The boundary between actual events and those imagined is intentionally obscured, a theme underscored by the exhibition’s title. The world presented in these works hints at the possibility of the supernatural.

The artificiality of the moment iconised in the photograps becomes highlighted, and what is portrayed takes on a decisively fictitious role, even one of meta-fiction: this is not really what happened. On the other hand, questions surrounding remembering and the essence of memory also enter the picture: what do we forget over time? How does the mind, or imagination, fill in the blanks?

Phantasmagoria is Kaarlo Stauffer’s first solo museum exhibition. Some twenty works from 2017–2024 are presented, all deriving from family pictures.

The exhibition has received a state grant from the Finnish Heritage Agency.