Christelle Kahla (b. 1994, Morges) lives and works in Lausanne. After completing her BAV at ECAL in 2017, she pursued an MAV at the Institute Kunst, Gender & Nature in Basel, graduating in 2019. In 2022, she was awarded a residency grant from the Canton of Vaud for a six-month stay in Paris.

Her work, regularly exhibited in solo and group shows in Switzerland and internationally, explores the body without revealing it explicitly. Stretching raw canvases like skins, swapping brushes for lipstick and painter’s tape—her paintings challenge the body’s status as an object of desire.

Spray paint is central to her practice, evoking both the immediacy of street art and its roots in self-assertion. The gesture is irreversible, capturing the tremors of her body and its imperfections. Using found objects as stencils, she creates imprints on textiles or paper, akin to photograms fixed by light.

In her exhibitions, painting extends into the space. In situ installations integrate elements of intimacy and domesticity—curtains, carpets, mirrors, flowers—blurring the line between decoration and illusion. Reflective surfaces fold the viewer into the scene, turning them into both witness and voyeur. ✨