Brenda Stumpf

Brenda Stumpf (American, b.1972) is a contemporary sculptor and painter. Stumpf is a self-taught artist and began exhibiting her work during the mid-1990s. She has been recognized for her intricate use of unorthodox materials such as the paper of steeped tea bags, unraveled rope, sand, plastic flowers, animal bones, salvaged wood, discarded metal, and scraped wallpaper to create sculptures and assembled paintings that have a baroque sensibility intertwined with evocative subject matter. Mythology, mysticism, poetry, and ancient history are deep wells for Stumpf. While deconstructing her materials and recreating anew with the fragments, she takes an almost shamanistic approach – a potent act akin to the cycle of death and rebirth.

Stumpf’s paintings, sculpture, and works on paper have been exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions, including The Westmoreland Museum of American Art, The Butler Institute of American Art, The Littleton Museum, The Strohl Art Center, Pittsburgh Glass Center, and The Outsider Art Fair. The artist’s work has been juried into numerous exhibits by the likes of Jerry Saltz, senior art critic and columnist for New York Magazine; Christoph Heinrich, Director of the Denver Art Museum; Jamie Sterns, writer and the curatorial director of Brooklyn’s Interstate Projects; and Taras Malta, Associate Director and current Acting Director of the University of Maryland Art Gallery.

Designers, architects, institutions, and private clients have commissioned Stumpf to create signature works, and to date, her art resides in over 350 private collections throughout the United States and abroad. Originally from Parma, Ohio, the artist currently lives and works in Denver, Colorado.