Artist Statement

I express my personal experiences of urban life through my own distinctively characteristic approaches as a painter. My work centres on 'the city as a way of life'.

I base my paintings on my own photos, which - rather than focusing on the unique - aim to accentuate general characteristics and to capture the cosmopolitan quality and unique timelessness of urban living.

I have developed my own painting technique, which I refer to as 'box painting'. This entails using a three-dimensional, object-like wooden box as an image medium, on which - instead of utilising traditional painting techniques - I apply motifs with such tools as blades, stencilled-masked surfaces, sprays and rubber rollers. The image surface emerges from a superimposition of paint layers, which requires conscious and planned artistic work. The sense of constructedness that is conveyed by the paintings adds an alienating effect to the spontaneity of the snapshots on which they are based.

My paintings are positioned somewhere between a reality that is directly perceived and one that is magically constructed, calling forth in viewers their own impressions of city life, and alluding to personal experiences based on shared memories of specific places. The figures that manifest in the city settings are correspondingly unique, but also familiar in a real or imagined way.

My works offer viewers a strikingly distinct take on the urban experience. My magically transfigured images draw on the collective memory and the experiences of cosmopolitan city dwellers, presenting viewers with a vision-like cityscape that is both personal and familiar. The personal perspectives - the use of 'manual focus' - are mere pointers for viewers, however, based on which I can focus in on my own urban experience.