Assa Kauppi broke through in 2011 with her sculpture ‘The Race is Over’, a bronze suite portraying seven children on the starting blocks a moment before a swim race. The childrens’ peculiarities reveal their individual conditions – and their chances to win the race and to get through life.

Competition is a recurring theme in the artistic narrative of Assa Kauppi. She is fascinated by constant competition, a sign of our times, where life itself has become a competition in which we constantly crown new winners and losers. Her second exhibition with Galleri Andersson/Sandström dealt with beauty pageants for children. The child as motif and symbol characterizes Assa Kauppi’s imagery. The child is transparent, making any expression easier to read. In a child, the physical ability to camouflage emotions is not yet mastered.

Assa Kauppi, born 1977, lives and works in Stockholm, Sweden. She graduated from the Royal Art Academy in Stockholm in 2011. Since then, her sculptures have been touring museums both in and outside Sweden, but have also been permanently placed as public art.