About

Lea Kampff

I am a trans Irish artist based between Kildare and Dublin and I completed a BA in Fine Art Painting at the National College of Art and Design in 2024. My practice is a studio-based one that focuses on painting and image making, as well as writing.

I have a focused yet explorative studio practice which led to being awarded a seven-month student residency in the Peer Studios in the RHA Gallery in 2022, where the practice expanded and began to involve collaboration but most importantly writing, after discovering that discussion and language is a vital part of art-making for me. During this time period I took part in two group exhibitions, SHIFT in Unit 44, Kirkos and Mesh/Mogall in A4 Sounds, the latter of which I took on a curatorial role.

My work balances outside of the literal and has personal connections to queer experience. The image-making and paintings flow between abstract landscape and self portraiture. The writing engagements then fight with and marry to the imagery, opening portals of beauty in the aporic existence of struggle and complex blends of the whole. Contemplative and content, yet ultimately still adrift.

Upon completing my BA in 2024, my graduation showcase titled “Dysphorum” served as the culmination of previous works, coalescing my multi-disciplinary approaches to artmaking. From which, “Quickened Breath of being Lost” was purchased by the OPW for the State Art Collection.

Beginning 2026, I sublet a studio in Ormond Art Studios, working on new works, series and taking commissioned work.

Most recently, I collaborated with The Dean Group, which acquired existing work and commissioned new paintings for the lobby and rooms of The Townhouse at The Dean Dublin City Centre. My painting “re: it all surges together – for” also appears on custom-printed keycards in Dublin and will feature in large on-location advertising for the forthcoming Dean Miami in Miami Beach, Florida.