Philip Dufva, born and active in Stockholm, studying at the Royal Institute of Fine Arts. He has previously studied at Pernby’s school for painting, where he built up his artistic vocabulary.

In the exhibition Ardor, Philip Dufva presents a collection of paintings from his archive that touches on intimacy, community and expectations. By working with intuition Philip Dufva builds a fragmented memory instead of a photorealistic storytelling. With this, the viewer is challenged to look beyond raw material, and further see elements of tenderness and soreness. There is a classic image of male gay intimacy that is often illustrated as either heteronormative or aggressive. Philip Dufva wants to challenge that by working between those given parallels.

The motives originate in images, memory and imagination, without boundaries or clear seams. Fiction, documentation, experience and desirability are woven together in Dufva's work. It creates a discussion on where different places, public and private meet, merge and create a reality that the viewer is invited to move through.