Artist Statement
I work with painting in an expanded sense, where process, materiality, and time are central elements. My practice explores chance, coincidence, and the chemistry that arises when different materials meet. I am drawn to situations where control is partially released and unexpected reactions generate new expressions. As a result, my works are often characterized by a strong sense of movement, energy, and force.
My approach is rooted in the idea that meetings are chemistry. Just as human encounters depend on chemistry, so do interactions between materials. This understanding is deeply informed by my background in photography. As a child, I spent many hours in the darkroom with my father, where I was introduced early to light, chemistry, and the slow act of developing an image. This experience shaped my awareness of how images emerge over time, and how materials themselves actively participate in that becoming.
Inspired by the analogue logic of the darkroom, my works evolve layer by layer through chemical reactions and the inherent properties of the materials. I work intuitively, allowing the “brain to be in my hands.” The process leads the expression rather than a predetermined idea. Perception enters later, opening a space for interpretation for both myself and the viewer.
Through pigments and the reactions between different materials, as well as spontaneous chemical processes, I invite nature’s own forces into the work. These interactions mirror natural cycles of transformation, erosion, growth, and renewal, allowing the materials to unfold on their own terms.
The works exist in the tension between intention and chance, pointing toward our place in nature: what exists beyond us also exists within us. Horizons, both literal and imagined, recur as thresholds between the known and the unknown, between inner and outer worlds.
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I have an art education from Sweden and Norway. I studied at the Uppsala School of Arts under the guidance of the Swedish artist Stina Wollter, and later earned a Master’s degree from the Oslo National Academy of the Arts (KHiO).
In addition to my art education, I hold an education in marketing, economics, and operational management from the Oslo Business Academy. I have been involved in several start-up companies and commercial projects, experience that informs my professional and independent artistic practice.
I currently run both a studio and gallery, Galleri Sjøwall, located in Anthon Walles vei in Sandvika, Norway.
NB. The colors in the pictures have a different expression ”live” due to the digital photo calibration.
