Leif Österman

For the Swedish artist, rejecting convention is a state of mind. He casts a 
disillusioned gaze upon technology and the alienation it brings, searching 
instead for a new sense of balance for humankind. His uninhibited painting 
is nourished by a sense of optimistic ecology and draws its roots from the 
depths of Nordic culture. In this pictorial space where earth, water, fire, and 
ice intertwine, the plant world asserts itself through its resilience. His 
approach to perspective is unsettling — he plays with aerial views and low 
angles, disrupting our usual points of reference in terms of scale and 
proportion. The gesture of this playful landscape painter is bold and 
spirited; his chromatic outbursts are daring. His expressive lines intertwine 
with color, pushing the boundaries of what is recognizable. Here and there, 
unfinished sketches of industrial architecture float through the landscape, 
swept up in the turmoil of a swirling cloud of smoke, pulling us into a 
dynamic process that hovers between abstraction and figuration