Linn Fernström
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"Camouflaged Heart-Eater"
Signed and dated Linn Fernström 2014 verso. Oil on canvas 211 x 300 cm.
Provenance
Lars Bohman Gallery, Stockholm.
Exhibitions
Lars Bohman Gallery, Stockholm, "Linn Fernström, Talk bubble on a straw", 21 August - 21 September 2014.
Literature
Lars Bohman Gallery, "Linn Fernström, Målningar och skulpturer", 2014, illustrated fullpage p. 26.
More information
“Camouflaged Heart-Eater” was shown at the Lars Bohman Gallery in Stockholm during the autumn of 2014. The exhibition was reviewed in the daily Svenska Dagbladet:
“She crashed onto the Swedish art scene almost 15 years ago, dividing it into two camps. Linn Fernström has undeniably aroused strong feelings every time she has stretched a piece of linen cloth across a sturdy frame and held her paintbrush against the canvas. It is easy to recognise Fernström’s hand in the new works, shown at Bohman. The formats are large, the palette rich and the brushwork is powerful. The figures resemble ones we’ve met before. A young woman, with the artist’s features, wanders alone with her thoughts, closed off and mysterious, yet exposed to our gaze. A screaming naked baby reaches its arms towards empty space. Monkeys dance. Wide-eyed children with serious expressions, as if no one taught them how to laugh. They are all there, surrounded by gigantic budgerigars, mayflies, smaller birds and clusters of balloons. These recurrent motifs are yet to be worn out. They continue to be the bearers of enigmatic histories.
Fernström’s painted worlds are ablaze with colour. If bright on the surface they are pitch-black within. There is something worryingly threatening in these scenes, oscillating between the white in the background and the blood-red that is almost dripping off the canvases.” (Extract from Joanna Persman’s review in Svenska Dagbladet, 27/8/2014)
Artist
Linn Fernström is a Swedish artist born in Örebro in 1974. She studied at the Idun Lovén Art School and continued her education at the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm between 1995 and 2000. In 1999, Fernström held her first solo exhibition at Galleri Mejan, which marked the beginning of a successful career that included several major solo shows, such as Liljevalchs in Stockholm.
Fernström's paintings often feature a bright background combined with strong, vivid colors. Her subjects revolve around people and animals, spanning between idyllic and nightmarish, playful and serious themes. With light brushstrokes and an airy composition, Fernström addresses themes such as death and love. It's challenging to discern whether the figures are flying or falling as she experiments, plays, and moves objects around; birds, injured bodies, monkeys, balloons, and plants. Her style often embodies realism with nods to classical painting infused with elements of symbolism and surrealism. Her paintings can be monumental in size, and Fernström enjoys depicting herself. Her renowned works have fetched high prices at art auctions during the 2000s, such as ' De tre kvinnorna,' 'Ballongerna', and the self-portrait 'Bortbytingen'.
Linn Fernström's works are represented in collections such as the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, Malmö Art Museum, and Linköping Art Museum.