In the paintings of Julia Selin there is a strong sense of expressiveness and density that instantly make sense. The paint has a concrete and tangible presence that the artist develops in both abstract and imaginative patterns. As an observer, we are drawn into the canvas through painterly gestures that continually provide for new discoveries. The paintings thus emerge with a concentrated energy and induce an experience of extraordinary presence in different degrees of intensity.
The artist herself searches for lines and motifs that in her own expression “force the color into different directions”. It’s an intuitive process where the color is pushed around on the canvas to a point where it all makes sense. These gestures leave traces from brushes, scrapers and fingers that are finding their way through the color. It turns into a form of story telling that sometimes ends in purely concrete motives, such as a pair of gymnastics in the painting titled Asics, or in a painting of a face in profile with an eye looking in a distinctive direction. In other paintings it is rather about creating an atmosphere and a shimmer, as in the painting Sticks.
In individual works as well as in the interacting in between, the direction is of great importance to Julia Selin. As the exhibition’s title indicates, WRONG PATH, there is an idea of heading forward in to an uncertain, bit-scary and unknown terrain. The direction is indicated in the paintings through a step or an attentive glance, and in the traces on the surface of the canvas as winding paths. In this transition between the known and unknown, there are horror and delight, darkness and light.
Julia Selin was born in Trollhättan 1986, lives and works in Malmö. She graduated from Umeå Art Academy 2013. For the past year, she has exhibited at the Moscow International Biennale for Young Art, Gallery Wallner and Gallery Ping Pong in Malmö. In 2017 she will attend exhibitions at Ystad Konsthall and Sunday-s Gallery in Copenhagen. She has also received Ellen Trozig’s grant from the Malmö Art Museum and Jenny Linds travel grant from the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts 2016.