About

Cat of Stockholm story

The origin of Cat of Stockholm emerged from my encounter with the film about Tom of Finland(2017). Watching it, at the time I realised that I was not aware of any widely recognised lesbian counterpart to him. What struck me most was the sense of loneliness, isolation, and otherness that permeated his story—feelings I deeply recognised. A solitude that ignites creative force and demands expression.

The contrast between Tom’s life and my own could hardly be greater. During the early twentieth century, homosexuality was illegal in Finland and throughout the Nordic countries, with severe punishments for homosexual acts. Everything took place in secrecy, within closed and hidden communities, always under the constant threat of police raids. Yet Tom felt compelled to give form to his dreams in the language closest to him—drawing—and to share them with the world by seeking out a gallerist in Paris, then a major centre of art and culture. 

I believe many people living in various forms of marginalisation can recognise themselves in his vast imagination, his longing and desire for what may feel forbidden, unattainable, or still unknown. There is a phase in the coming-out process marked by an urgent need to reach outward—to declare one’s existence, to say: Here I am. I exist.

This is my expression, and it must be seen.That is precisely how I felt in every line I sketched. Each stroke contains fragments of longing—a search for something more. To reach further, to reach someone, to move beyond oneself.The work is also an attempt to expose what may be considered forbidden to those who do not recognise themselves in it, and perhaps never will. It plays with the boundaries between what is provocative, exotic, or pornographic—on women’s and LGBTQ+ people’s own terms.

The primary intention is to make women’s sexuality visible and tangible, with a particular focus on lesbian sexuality as in women loving women. Cat of Stockholm is a pseudonym operating through a continuous flow of visual storytelling on an Instagram account.

Exibitions:

2025  Stockholm Pride , Pridehouse, Clarion Sign 
2021  Stockholm Pride, Pride House,Clarion Skanstull 
2020  Stockholm Pride, Pride house, Clarion Skanstull  
2019  Stockholm Pride, Pride park, Östermalms IP 
2018  Juste Gallery, single exhibition 
2018  Södertälje Pride, Kulturhuset 
2018  Uppsala Pride, Femman  
2018  Stockholm Pride, Pride Park Östermalms IP 
2017  Stockholm Pride, Pride House, Kulturhuset Stockholm