In the essay, “In the magic sphere of red” (I det rödas trollkrets), Douglas Feuk decribes the creative work of Ola Billgren in the 90s as a dual process of destruction and painterly refinement. Billgren deliberately scrapes through the wet layers of paint with a metal object, forever altering the original image.The motif, taking a starting point in a photograph, becomes blurred and
enveloped in a warm red light. The shades of red will become darker and closer to violet during the late 90s. The painting “Capri II” evokes a night-time scene which appears as a dreamlike and evasive memory. The red color contributes to the sensual experience, and is, in a way, a message without a sender.

Ola Billgren is represented in several museums, including Moderna Museet in Stockholm, the Gothenburg Museum of Art, Malmö Museum, Statens Museum for Kunst in Copenhagen, Museum für Kunst- und Kulturgeschichte in Lübeck, and the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humlebaeck. His works are also included in the collections of Lund University and in the collections of the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris.