Jonna Johansson

Jonna Johansson's art deals with corporeality and what it means to be human, while also voicing a critical commentary on themes ranging from sustainability and social equality to the world?s need for more empathy. She draws her material from varied sources such as social media, old paintings, magazines, books and her private collections. The realism of her source material vanishes during the painting process, being supplanted by colour-drenched fantasies and pastel-shaded dream-like scenes blending figurative and abstract imagery. Johansson?s powerful images of womanhood are contrasted with the storybook sweetness of her ?bunny drawings?, whose seeming cuteness belies an incisively ironic subtext. Using high-gloss alkyd paints, Johansson employs an expressive technique akin to action painting or Pop Art, often applying paint with the canvas lying flat on the floor. The palette knife and squeegee are her preferred tools, but she is equally at home with traditional brushwork, both in acrylics and oils.