Kaspar Oppen Samuelsen

Grå Stær, Hvid Kat

V1 Gallery is pleased to present 

Grå Stær, Hvid Kat
A solo exhibition by Kaspar Oppen Samuelsen
May 1 – June 6, 2026

Opening reception: May 1, 16.00 – 21.00

Grå Stær, Hvid Kat (Grey Cataract, White Cat) is an exhibition rooted in the moment the artist’s vision shifted. After cataract surgery on his left eye, colours appeared hyper-vivid. The worlds living in his eyes were no longer equal: the left was flooded with pink and magentas while the right existed with a dim tint. The world was set askew. Now with a left eye equivalent to that of a six-year-old, Samuelsen had gained the ability to oscillate between the sight of the child and the adult. By closing one eye, he could shift through planes of perception and, quite literately, see the world with new eyes. With both eyes open, the worlds collide as one. This asymmetry between ways of seeing became both a physical condition and a conceptual lens through which this exhibition was developed.

 Like the colours shaped by his operated eye, Samuelsen’s technique is closely tied to the conditions of his body – especially the fragile state just after waking, when his consciousness is still saturated with the residue of dreams. Suspended in this liminal moment, he allows forms to surface through sketches, building a bridge between the unconscious and the sensible. These are later transferred onto canvas. Each form is then cut out, turning the drawing into a set of autonomous shapes. Each fragment is coloured independently, allowing brushstrokes and hues to retain their own internal energy. The process echoes the logic of intarsia, woodblock printing, and mosaics – all artistic traditions in which abstract elements are assembled into a unified image.

In Samuelsen’s work, images shift in and out of existence. In Blå Kat, Røde Sko (Blue Cat, Red Shoes) the cat is illustrated by its eyes only, drawing parallels to the Cheshire cat from Alice in Wonderland. A fitting image, as Samuelsen’s works are a journey down the rabbit hole of the fantastical. Reality becomes relative. You see the hero and the lover and the strife and the pain and the joy. A story starts to write itself as you walk through the exhibition. It unfolds inside you as the characters tell tales of the past and the journeys to come. You see a coy man lounging across two bulls. He’s twirling horns made of bubble-gum with one of his three hands. He’s calm as he lay in his suit with pants woven of stars. And there, a boy with a giant egg tied around his neck, a rooster looks back at him and crows as he leaves, the sky is burning red. These images, these artworks, these stories are seen and interpreted through the post-cataract filter. With his enhanced eye, Samuelsen is watching the subconscious and colouring it vivid.

Kaspar Oppen Samuelsen (b. 1977, Denmark) holds a BFA from Goldsmiths College, University of London, UK and an MFA from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Copenhagen, Denmark. He has mounted solo and group exhibitions with Viborg Kunsthal, Viborg, Denmark; 15th edition of TULCA Festival of Visual Arts, They Call Us the Screamers, curated by Matt Packer, Connacht Tribune Print Works, Galway, Ireland; O Chair O Flesh, Treignac Projet, Treignac, France and Politikens Forhal, Copenhagen, Denmark. Grå Stær, Hvid Kat, is Samuelsen’s third solo exhibition with V1 Gallery.