Katrin Westman Breath
Stockholm, 25.2–10.4 2021
Galleri Andersson/Sandström is pleased to present its third solo exhibition with Swedish artist Katrin Westman.
“Katrin Westman wants to attract us close to her paintings, lure us in and out of them, make us constantly make new discoveries and set us in motion.” – Mikael Hagner, Barometern
Westman’s work moves between sculpture and painting in a play with the image and the materiality of colour. The painting takes shape against the flat surface of the floor and is processed in thin layers of oil that meets swollen parts. The paint is scraped, erased and brushed on until the drawing hand defines the shapes.
Gradually, the feeling of a form and the form of a feeling appear. An attempt to give life to, embrace and make the work stand on its own two feet. The constant presence of the Baroque era in Westman’s painting is evident in the rich colour of the palette and in the drama, decadence and dynamics of the paintings. From self-composed still lifes of decayed flowers, photographs models of crowds on beaches or sculptures, images arise that form the starting point for Westman’s work on the canvas. A process that exists for the artist beyond the framework of the intellect, which is about liberation and about daring to be changeable in the encounter with the foreign.
In Breath, Westman shows the sculptural potential of painting and the desire to let the viewer meet the works from different positions in the room. The waves form a spatial installation of curved paintings in MDF that lie against the floor together with drops in concrete. In Stay Close, the canvas tries to cling to a steel stand. The painting only gives suggestions but omits the answers.
Katrin Westman was born in 1987 in Örebro. She graduated from the Umeå Academy of Fine Arts in 2015 and currently lives and works in Stockholm, Sweden. Westman’s works are found in collections such as Bonniers Konstförening, SAK (Sveriges Allmänna Konstförening) and Kristenhamn Art Museum.
In 2016 she received Vera and Göran Agnekil’s scholarship and a 1-year scholarship from the Konstnärsnämnden (The Swedish Art Council). In 2015 she was awarded scholarships from Anna-Lisa Thomson Foundation, Eva and Hugo Bergman Memorial Fund and in 2014 she received the Kristenhamn Art Museum’s scholarship for young artists, as the youngest recipient ever.