Linn Fernström
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"Bland ruiner"
Signed Linn Fernström and dated 2010 verso. Mixed media on canvas 155 x 200 cm.
Provenance
Gallerie Arnstedt, Östra Karup.
Exhibitions
Galleri Arnstedt, Östra Karup, "Tvåstigsvandra i solsystem", 2010.
More information
Linn Fernström is an artist of contrasts. Extremes find room on her large canvases; beauty meets the grotesque, the idyllic clashes with the frightening, the delicate mixes with the powerful, and the large interacts with the small. Fernström's visual world is reminiscent of a dream, eerie and pleasurable at the same time. With light brushstrokes, a vibrant palette, and an airy composition, themes such as death and love are addressed. In this powerful composition, Linn Fernström rests on an art historical foundation where her way of viewing the world and her sensitivity to details create magic from the mundane. She combines elements from earlier works with new impressions of places and people from her travels. Like a child's unpretentious way of experiencing their surroundings, the artist lets life's marvels generate dreams and fantasies in a recognizable environment.
Karin Holm writes about the exhibition "Tvåstigsvandra i solsystem" in Hallands Nyheter on 19 July 2010.
"Successful Linn Fernström has over the years returned to Galleri Arnstedt, where she first exhibited as a newly graduated from the Art Academy in 2000. This year she calls the exhibition 'Tvåstigsvandra i solsystem' where drawings and paintings are in dialogue.
– It's a new way for me to work. I got inspiration during a trip to Houston when I saw images by the American artist Cy Twombly, she says before the opening in the former mill in Östra Karup.
In the bright rooms with rough concrete floors, the works give the impression of lifting off the walls. Linn Fernström's familiar flowers and small creatures contrast against the graphite drawing, and the images gain a narrative depth. As before, the artist herself appears in some works, but she also chooses to portray others, often people she has captured with her camera on trips. Animals also continue to play a central role."
Bukowskis has previously sold one of the drawings, a detail from "Bland ruiner" (Among Ruins), a portrait of the woman in the lower right of the canvas, executed in charcoal/graphite on paper 66 x 50 cm.
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.