Karin Mamma Andersson

'Karin Mamma Andersson's paintings seem to be filled with familiar everyday things, interiors, landscapes and human figures, but their atmosphere is strange, inexplicable, even unnerving. The original choice of subjects in her works arises from the world of dreams, myths and art. "Snares and mines - in the midst of the familiar," writes the Director of the Moderna Museet Lars Nittve in the exhibition catalogue.

Many of the works on show at the Kunsthalle portray spaces, people and frozen moments, as if they were psychologically charged scenes from some chamber play. Karin Mamma Andersson's characters are often lost in their thoughts and turned away from the viewer, whereas allusions in the works to other paintings and art history imbue them with a throbbing presence. The scenes in the paintings seem arrested, caught in an intermediate stage between waiting, achieving and forgetting. The images live in their own curious universe.
Karin Mamma Andersson's paintings are first and foremost about images - mental images and memories, all kinds of images without any objective reference. The dimensions of time and space are unsettled, interiors and exteriors are turned upside down, and memories and amnesia are combined. Karin Mamma Andersson's painting technique is inclusive: from soft and smooth brushstrokes to harsh and grating gestures, from thick layers of colour to runny, transparent paint. Alongside the figurative, the paintings always have an abstract level; the realistic is complemented with the surreal.

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