Biography

Anna Camner is a consummate example of an artist who cannot be restricted according to contemporary matrices. The natural scientific aesthetic used, combined with the mastery of her one medium of choice (oil on the acrylic sheet), results in poetic, fragmentary perspectives of the psyche, whose presence is almost audible.

Governed by a general surrealist feeling, her distinctive painterly practice lies at the gentle intersection between figuration and abstraction. Underlying throughout the oeuvre is a desire to free oneself, allowing the subconscious priority in decision-making.

Though touch itself isn’t an emotion, it triggers neural, glandular, muscular, and mental changes that closely relate to our feelings. The skin, as the primary medium of touch, allows us to experience the world and communicate our deepest emotions, creating a unique social dynamic where one cannot touch without being touched in return.

In Camner’s paintings, synthetic materials like latex and PVC cover the skin like a membrane and blur the line between the natural and man-made, challenging our perceptions of humanity and desire. These glossy substances, both protect and restrain, offering a paradoxical mix of control and vulnerability. By enhancing the expressive power of touch, they amplify gestures and actions, while veiling superficial identities to reveal deeper desires and the true essence of being.

This dual role of touch as both receiver and emitter is vital to intimacy and social interaction, with synthetic materials accentuating this experience and further exploring the boundaries of emotion and connection.

From a technical perspective, Camner’s alla prima method has remained consistent over the past twenty years – allowing for a refinement of her pictorial vocabulary, while delving into the distillation of her artistic identity. By using wet-on-wet paint – without allowing adjacent parts to dry - Camner is pushed in a race against time, requiring careful pre-planning of each segment. The technical challenges and the inherent difficulty of this method allow the artist to enter a trance-like state of mind, releasing control over decision-making, while concomitantly allowing the subconscious to take a more prominent role.

Anna Camner (b. 1977) lives and works in Stockholm. Since graduating from the Royal Institute of Art (Stockholm) in 2003, her work has been exhibited extensively in solo shows in Stockholm, London, and New York, along with group exhibitions like an extensive presentation at the Armory Show (Galerie Forsblom 2020), The International Biennial of Contemporary Art (BIACI) in Cartagena, Colombia (2014), and Mumbai, India (2019). She was also awarded the prestigious Beckers Art Award in 2017, leading to an exhibition at Färgfabriken, Stockholm, Sweden. During 2024 her work has been exhibited at the Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art (Hiroshima, Japan), Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery (Tokyo, Japan), El Royale, Loyal Gallery (Los Angeles, USA), and the New York City Culture Club, WTC (New York, USA). Camner is also curating and has founded the non-profit art platform Black Iris and curates exhibitions in unexpected locations typically closed to the public.

Upcoming exhibitions:

2025 Solo exhibition, Ståhl Collection, Norrköping, Sweden.