Maj Olsson Gendt

Maj Olsson Gendt is a chemist of paint. She studies the behaviours and structures of concentrated and diluted acrylic washes, brushwork, pencil drawings and primers as they react with one another. Her process explores the possibilities and limitations of paint, allowing the material to behave according to its own qualities. In her work, the canvas is considered an object in itself, with the belief that the image is already there, yet to be revealed, letting the surface, structure, and physicality shape the work.

Maj’s practice uses appropriated photographs that have been found in books, exhibitions, architecture, interior magazines, or taken by peers. This process reflects on authorship and uniqueness, and views images as part of a chain reaction in which each is a direct or indirect product of the previous one. Within the paintings, traces of the source remain visible, such as a distortion of perspective caused by the bend of a page. Through the choice of image, the paintings explore spaces that feel inhabited yet unoccupied.