Runner Up 2024

Emeli Theander

Beasts

Jackson's Art Prize 2024
Oil
Canvas
160 x 120 cm

£5,100

“I have created an imaginary vision of the unconscious, which often resembles a botanical greenhouse or a watery landscape. In these garden rooms I see figures and landscape being mirrored, reflected by the imaginary walls or in the water. I feel that being mirrored gives me a sense of self and secures me from getting lost in my own wild nature. I see painting as a way to dig into whatever it means to be human, like a psychological archeologist looking to reveal whatever is layered underneath the surface.
I like to use my oil paint in a way where I combine thick and bold strokes with thin, delicate layers, which underlines a feeling of paradoxical emotions.
In my paintings I´m putting the vulnerable aspects of life in the foreground. Lately “Motherhood”, and all its sometimes very contradictive roles, has played a big part in my subject matter. Suddenly there were more inhabitants in my imaginary landscape, and I had to ask myself: Where does my body end and where do these other bodies begin?”