21-12-1988
CENTRAL THEME
The central theme in Camilla's artistic practice is interconnectedness. She explores the relationships between monumental vastness and the meticulously small in painting and writing. Her practice is a proclamation of our relative nature as humans, how tiny we are amid an enormous landscape but massive next to subatomic particles. Camilla is fascinated by the extraordinary intelligence the structures of life continue to display no matter how much we zoom in or out. How humans are an equal part of this, and how our seemingly inherent illusion of separateness influences our behavior and the world.
Her interest in Eastern philosophy and experience of silent meditation retreats and Buddhist monasteries heavily influences her process. Camilla look for subtle ways to visually remind the viewer and herself that it is possible to pull the experiential veil of separateness aside and discover that our bodies continues past our skin and connects us to everything else. The bold, colorful, playful allegories from her practice may leave more questions to answer these initial queries but Camilla hope to offer fruitful introspective moments for her audience.
VISUAL LANGUAGE
Through a mixed-media approach, Camilla makes energetic and unapologetic abstract paintings at the intersection of fine art, semiotics, and street art.
Her abstract but painterly vigorous brushwork, vibrant colors, and rich textures act against underlying color field structures, and a push-and-pull tension is established between the various components, although the integral flatness of the picture plane is retained. Camilla pays particular attention to peripheral elements and details to lure the viewer closer and create a dynamic relationship with the layers of her paintings. She typically utilizes familiar semantics that we experience daily, such as gravity, lightness, imbalance, and harmony, to create abstractions that viewers intuitively can relate to, but that leaves enough unsaid.
PROCESS
Camilla approaches her work in the studio with a playful, light-hearted attitude that prioritizes fearless experimentation. She rarely makes any pre-drawings or sketches and frequently begins her paintings with a spontaneous gesture or mark that sets the entire piece in motion. The focus of her practice is balancing two alternating states of mind. Firstly a formal intellectual state of mind, where she uses her critical eye and accumulated knowledge as a painter and designer to shape the painting. Secondly, a state of intuitive listening to what the painting tells her. She wants to spend a minimum amount of time in her intellectual mind since she has become increasingly interested in reducing her agenda and influence over the painting to a minimum.
She describes it as an ongoing attempt to relax her limited rational thinking and respond to and trust in her instinct and gut feeling. She believes there is a transcendent intelligence that is not the product or outcome of thought and conceptual understanding. She seeks direct contact with this intelligence throughout her art practice by moving beyond her mind and accumulation of knowledge.
BACKGROUND
Growing up in a small working-class town in the remote subarctic region of northern Sweden, Camilla was far away from any fine-art institutions but nevertheless, started drawing and painting diligently around the age of 11. As a young teenager, she became heavily influenced by surrealism, expressionism and street art and started painting large-scale acrylics at the age of 14. Camilla spent most of her 20s seeking novelty by traveling around the global south and living abroad. Eventually, she returned to Sweden to get a BFA and MFA in Interaction Design. During her studies, she was inspired by abstract and minimal art and design. She switched to digital painting and art making for seven years but returned to acrylics, spray cans, and other physical media in the summer of 2022.