Annie Swift

A new breed of paint­ing Elis­a­bet Persson’s work invites view­ers to a world full of vibrant col­ors and mys­te­ri­ous vis­ages. Pers­son grace­fully incor­po­rates pic­turesque ele­ments into the paint­ings she creates—works that stand for a real­ity observed through her own eyes and imag­i­na­tion. The result is a rep­re­sen­ta­tion that is dreamy, capri­cious, and out of this world.

Swedish artist Elis­a­bet Persson’s works explore a deeply con­tem­pla­tive cor­ner of the visual sphere. Through her unique work Pers­son seeks to elim­i­nate the bound­aries of mem­ory, his­tory and geog­ra­phy in order to make a state of true con­tem­pla­tion pos­si­ble. Her paint­ings span a dynamic assort­ment of styl­is­tic and the­matic con­clu­sions that are linked by their reflec­tive nature. Each work uti­lizes the can­vas as a forum to dis­play the con­clu­sion of a jour­ney that begins with her imag­i­na­tion and ends with a poetic act of expres­sion. Her art teaches the viewer that pure art springs from a med­i­ta­tive state of mind. Expres­sive and fan­tas­ti­cal, the inno­v­a­tive imagery of this mul­ti­fac­eted artist reveals the hid­den side of her sub­jects’ per­son­al­i­ties. Fas­ci­nated by imper­fec­tion, nar­ra­tive and humor Pers­son attempts to incor­po­rate incon­gruities and irreg­u­lar­ity into her warm folksy mis-en-scene por­traits. In fact, Pers­son pro­claims, “I pre­fer to cre­ate with warmth and well-being as a theme, I want to approach the dif­fi­cult things in life with a sense of humor.” Tur Att Jag Har Dig depicts a woman with a crim­son face, con­vers­ing with an enthralled puppy, com­bined with a muted back­drop of slate grey and ivory. Encom­passed by the near col­or­less neg­a­tive space, she is engulfed in a space that is not of this world. The splat­ters of crim­son and umber paint slash­ing across her facial fea­tures, evokes a sen­sa­tion of vio­lence, an impres­sion com­pounded by her lan­guid body and expres­sion.                                                                                                             Persson’s organic yet uni­fied forms are deeply rooted in real­ism and are often ren­di­tions of peo­ple she knows well. Her oils, draw­ings, and prints reveal an intense obser­va­tion of the sub­ject; she makes his mark with author­ity and final­ity, and arrives at the essence of her fig­ures. Persson’s sig­na­ture thick black lines and the furi­ous mark mak­ing she employs give her sub­jects a flick­er­ing qual­ity of energy.

http://www.elisabetpersson.se/