Ballerina II, Nadja Nord Drawing

Elínrós Díanadóttir is a Swedish–Icelandic artist based in Barcelona. Working primarily with painting, drawing, and mixed media, her practice centers on the human figure as a field of perception, emotion, and somatic presence rather than portrait or narrative. Her work moves fluidly between figuration and abstraction, using the body as a threshold where inner states and lived experience become visible. Through layered color, intuitive mark-making, and moments of restraint, Díanadóttir explores transformation as a lived, embodied process. For over twenty years, her work has been sensual, urgent, and intensely colorful, moving between figurative and abstract while maintaining a commitment to scale, presence, and emotional resonance. Her latest paintings deepen the exploration of somatic experience, and the interplay of harmony and conflict within the figure and its environment. Artist Statement: Painting is a site of encounter, where sensation, attention, and inner movement unfold like a natural phenomenon. I am drawn to the tensions that coexist within the body, within human experience, and within the natural world, and how they shape our lives. I often begin with a sketch or drawing, but as I paint, a relationship between me and the canvas unfolds. It is a conversation that guides the work beyond intention. Gesture, color, moods, and the shifting rhythms of the work shape the piece. I enter the process, collaborating with the moment, feeling more like an archaeologist than a sculptor — attentive and receptive to what emerges, rather than imposing form. Meaning emerges through somatic presence, perception, and the subtle energies within the work itself.