Alva Sjöstedt

Ljustonen svartvävd I-III, 2025
[Light Tone Dark Woven I-III]
Oil and wax on aluminium
Oil and wax on canvas

Fyra blommor (framtid, baktid, höger, vänster), 2025
[Four Flowers (Future, Past, Right, Left)]
Oil and wax on aluminium

Using a practice that shifts between materiality and images, Alva Sjöstedt paints in oil and wax, often in combination with metal and text. She is interested in the sculptural aspect of painting as an object. By allowing the audience’s gaze to switch between image and surface, she explores the different conditions of painting: gesture, events, space, colour, time, light, weight, lightness, ugliness and beauty. The centre of her working practice lies in the space between the rational/objective and the irrational/intuitive. “To mark, to cross out, to fight, to contradict, to compensate, to shame, to abstract. The dream and the poem – premonitions of the nature and depth of reality.”

Ljustonen svartvävd is a series of three paintings – two on aluminium and one on canvas – in which the artist has worked with the interaction between the different properties of materials and the reflection of light. Patches of empty space allow the paintings to change with the weather and light conditions, from dawn to dusk. Sjöstedt sees her works as painterly weather, time and light reports.

Open video in full screen

Interview with Alva Sjöstedt

Open video in full screen

Close X close full screen video