The hallucinogenic, sorbet-coloured paintings of Swedish artist Camilla Engström celebrate nature and its life-giving powers.
Read MoreÖrebro-born Engström graduated from the Parsons School of Design in 2009, after which she worked in fashion in New York. A self-taught artist, Engström received widespread attention for her drawings of her alter ego Husa, the Swedish word for housemaid.
Engström's works are marked by their vibrant, sunset-like colour palette. Often using orange, pink, and green tones, Engström creates bucolic, organic portraits of women and nature inspired by the healing qualities of Mother Nature. Her works may be compared to those of Georgia O'Keeffe or Hilma af Klint.
Engström's earlier paintings often featured her alter ego Husa, a full-bodied, mischievous pink character. Husa embodied the antithesis of the artist's previous experience in the fashion industry, where the ideal body was tall and thin. Engström has depicted Husa engaged in various activities and taking different forms – as a giant, as a miniature, picking up trees, playing with the sun, and sitting within someone's ear.
In Guldflod (Gold River) (2021), Engström paints a golden sun-like form in the shape of a breast, from which milk falls into the river within a valley. The breast is a consistent symbol in Engström's practice, and recurs in works such as Mjölkregn över mjukt landskap (milk rain over soft landscape) (2021) and Blödande Sol (Bleeding Sun) (2021), where the sun-breasts provide life to psychedelic landscapes.
The motif of the volcano is often seen in Engström's works, including Tidigt Var (Spring Welcome) (2021), Steaming Volcanos (2021), and Natt Til Dag (Night to Day) (2021). In these paintings, translucent waves of steam billow upwards from volcanic craters, with the geological formations sitting alongside rolling hills and rippling mountains.
Camilla Engström has held solo exhibitions at Carl Kostyál, Stockholm (2021); Over the Influence, Los Angeles (2020); and Deli Gallery, New York (2016).
Engström's work has been included in group exhibitions at Carl Kostyál, Stockholm (2022); SPRING/BREAK Art Show, Los Angeles (2019); and Big Pictures, Los Angeles (2018).
Camilla Engström's website can be found here, and her Instagram can be found here.
Arianna Mercado | Ocula | 2022
